Hiccup gone half fury
by Puffin777
Summary: With the aid of Toothless and Stormfly, Hiccup and Astrid are changed into Hybrids, where they find out just what it feels like to be in the middle ground between the two warring species. There will be humans, dragons and gods, as they make their way towards the Red Death. Updates are very slow and I'd appreciate any support, whether it's constructive criticism or motivation.
1. 1: The first meeting

**Hiccup gone half fury.**

 **A/N: a few notes:**

 **There are other authors I know I've taken inspiration from; From what I've heard from them they're fine with it.**

 **Reviews are, of course, welcome.**

 **Do you want pronounced (best friend) relationships? Tell me if you do by PM or review.**

 **This is the 3** **rd** **/4** **th** **updated version. Minor** **patch.**

 **End A/N**

* * *

 **Chapter 1:**

 **[After the HTTYD 1 starting sequence: Berk landscape shots then the apocalyptic scene of a dragon raid, the only difference? Mangler misses.]**

Hiccup walked sullenly towards his home, briefly examined by the Vikings he passed, until they realised he was just going home. He had managed to miss the Night Fury, he would have to wait for another night now the Fury had finished its attacks; and that meant getting past the Vikings to the firing spot _again_ , when they would be far less understanding of his intentions than this time.

This meant they would be willing to punish him harder and be on the lookout for him at night, what a nightmare.

The only thing left to do in this situation now was to go to bed. With luck, the extra rest should help him tomorrow; a wishful thought, but his only solid reasoning. He opened the heavy door, noting the fire marks on the wood, ' _I could've contributed to fighting them, now I'm just a waste, like always.'_ He thought glumly.

Hiccup reached his room and curled up onto his bed. He hoped to escape the dangerous world around him, get lost in dreams, maybe even create another invention. He didn't get the opportunity. An alien sensation came to him; dragon presence, a strange feeling that he somehow understood, where was it? here? Downstairs? It felt close; and getting closer.

Eventually, the presence seemed right next to him; he sat up, gasping, and scanning the room. It was a figment of his imagination, it seemed, but the feeling refused to go away, sticking around even with this realisation.

He lay down again, hoping that his action would help resolve his thoughts, it didn't. The thoughts kept coming, now eyes, claws fire. Hiccup desperately suppressed these thoughts. Finally, they relented, for a short while.

Hiccup started trying to go to sleep again. The air burned with ferocious intensity with the burning buildings, burning fields, and the night vision torch damage from his earlier mishap, painting the sky a flickering orange.

Here, under a scene like sunset in the middle of the night, as he lay tossing and turning, he wondered what destiny he had here on Berk; a land of courage, strength, and endurance.

He didn't have a lot of strength, courage, or endurance himself; a fact proved too many a time during the numerous dragon attacks that he had to deal with, by hiding in a corner. Attempts to take on the beasts, to show his courage, ended up with minor wounds and a _very_ irritated father; who was the single reason he was alive and well.

As well as this, he caused disasters _everywhere_ just by accident; major disasters like burning a house down, medium intensity disasters (the very existence of a scale is bad enough) like spilling weapons in the path of charging Vikings, and small accidents like stubbing my toe just to remind him that He's cursed by Loki. He even once had 4 disasters occurring at the same time, Lucky him.

He was a walking accident, who was also a 'talking fishbone' as regarded by other Vikings (one of them compared his recently eaten fish skeleton to his body; it was basically the same shape, it was also a _very_ narrow fish). Clearly he wasn't meant to be here. Thor knows how he's still alive.

He didn't even have friends to boast of; he had a few when he was younger, but they moved on as soon as they realised he was never going to be able to join them. He would stay at home whenever they did something _useful_ around the village. The initial forgiveness of my clumsiness soon turned to dulled acceptance that it was never going to end.

The only reasonable talent he had, the only excuse he had, was a rare gift in innovation; drawing after drawing of exotic inventions never before seen in the archipelago.

Although the Vikings did not think anything well of this; these inventions were a mixed bag, but never entirely successful. Mostly they would break apart, harming the user.

Or they would fire, but too weak. And once, just once, his contraption fired too well; A shot that had seemed to defy gravity as it sped through the air far faster than Hiccup had thought it could. It missed it's intended target; a certain black dragon.

As a sigh emanated from this sad excuse of a Viking he was suddenly aware of the low rumbling of a dragon coming from the darkened forest.

This caused him to wonder; what dragon could possibly still be roaming the land around him?

The raid dragons had all returned home and those who stuck around were being carted away by the village's dragon hunters to the ring; he thinks one of them was the monstrous nightmare trying to kill him. He supposes he will have to go and ask him to finish the job tomorrow.

Cautiously, He went downstairs, making sure that Stoick wasn't there to catch me trying to leave the house again.

Then he cautiously opened the door, only a small bit so he wasn't burned instantly, and looked out to see where the noise was coming from.

he hadn't been hit yet, that's a good omen, at least one god wasn't looking for his instant death this time. Was the door on fire? No… at least, not at the moment… strange.

When was the next threat to his existence going to make itself known?

Seeing nothing at first in his narrow field of view, he looked closer and saw two poison green eyes at the forest edge, scanning the village.

The iris glowed unnaturally warm against the pitch black around itself, like a green ember in the darkness.

This scared him, instinctively, into slamming the door and taking up a protective position behind a nearby wall, panting heavily (his 'trademark' reaction to a dragon).

But with no forthcoming sounds of dragon blasts, or pain, he peeked out the door …again. looked into those eyes …again. And didn't die, surprisingly … again.

With no sign of aggression from the dragon, as far as he could tell, and no sudden moves from Hiccup himself they both kept staring at the other, before the mysterious eyes turned back into the forest and distant heavy footsteps could be heard.

The swaying branches, catching the moonlight, were the only evidence that the creature had gone

A short time later, after snapping out of his long stare, he contemplated following this beast. Normally, he would decide against this, but he was curious at this non-aggressive behaviour (after all Gobber always talked about how the dragon 'goes for the kill' while working at the forge) and wanted to see more.

Also, he had been pressured by his dad to be something other than '… _this_ ' giving him determination to try to kill this beast (a laughable attempt, but maybe, in the most fortunate instance, it could happen).

Helheim, he might even get himself killed, and see where the non-warriors went when they died.

He mentally prepared himself to go after this beast ("I am a Viking… I AM A VIKIN- (voice cracks)").

After spending a good amount of time steeling himself, although still woefully scared, he decided that he was ready to give chase as fast as his scrawny legs could carry him; not very fast at all.

Thus, he ran after the retreating noise of this curious creature's footsteps without his knife, having forgotten it in his house. Had he noticed this deadly error he should have stopped and would not have taken this risk.

Should've stopped, shouldn't have taken that risk, but it's Hiccup, the Gods are against him (apart from one, but he didn't know about that) _._

 _But,_ he didn't, and he didn't relent his chase. He 'dodged around trees' (correction: haphazardly bumped into trees),

'flying (not literally) over boulders', (correction wheezing up one side of the rock and then falling off the other).

After a long time, spent stumbling through the forest following the large footprints of this massive creature by the strong moonlight, the noise having long since retreated into the distance and obscurity, Hiccup finally began to admit another defeat.

He came to a sharp stop as he realised the footprints had stopped in the middle of nowhere.

From this confusing realisation, Hiccup quickly scanned around the area for any signs of the tracks restarting or the dragon itself, if cursed by Loki; Got to love that troublesome god; life would be boring without him.

But, having found no other trail, he decided that the creature had flown away, being a dragon, obviously, having wings and a tail to get himself airborne. The silent forest resounded with the depressing pessimism of his thoughts.

He therefore knew he couldn't track it. After these thoughts and a brief temper, a.k.a stubbing his toe on a tree for losing a massive beast so easily.

He let the anger fade, before starting to take the long walk back to the village; unaware of the two poison green eyes following him as the beast detached from the tree it hid in.

Following closely and preparing for a pounce.

Hiccup kept casually walking back with a bit of disappointment, but also relief since he was _not_ fit to fight a dragon.

He stopped at the sound of rustling from behind him, of a large _presence_ behind him that detached itself from the background silently.

Turning around he was quickly surprised with a strong push from a creature now in front of him. Dazed by his collision with a rock behind him, he looked into the eyes of the aggressor.

Into the same lime green eyes as before.

Startled, he tried to back away but was trapped between this beast and the rock. After some more looking for an escape route and subsequent failure, he resigned himself to his fate as target practise for this strange creature all the while cursing himself for the stupid decision to follow the dragon in the first place.

His waiting was not interrupted by flame or fury

(pun intended, though Hiccup still doesn't know that)

and after a time, curiosity returned his gaze back to the dragon. This dragon, black; as the human could see, was watching this small human with his head curiously cocked, struggling to comprehend his vision as he saw this humorously weak-looking Viking in front of him.

This was a new sight to the dragon; who was used to seeing the bodies of the dragon-fighters of the village; who had simply astonishing amounts of muscle.

This boy was certainly no such fighter.

He was also up against a beast that was a definite killer; at least in the eyes of the Vikings.

What could he do? Run like a coward or fight like a fool?

Hiccup had a rush of determination, from who knows where, and decided to try to bring this beast down. So, he performed a heavily improvised trick to try to kill this beast; He surged forwards with a high pitched, cowardly yell into a standing position, hand quickly reaching for his weapon and stabbing forward to reveal… nothing in his hand.

It was at this moment he realised he forgot his knife; and this thought, as well as the fact that his move had not, of course, been executed well, meant he fell painfully back on his rump awaiting his death.

Now he was defeated AND humiliated, by his own hand no less, an element of foolishness that seemed to be a cruel repayment for his pride in intellect. His death did not come quickly, like before, and he was now wondering why he still wasn't dying.

Thus, he again looked back into the beast's eyes and he suddenly had a theory, an absurd, stupid theory, that this dragon may be friendly! But how? And why?

He could only wait and find out; death or horrendously unlikely salvation?

 **Toothless:**

After his pounce onto the human child, the Night Fury felt an unexpected, forced hesitation upon seeing this scrawny child in front of him. His limbs were not forced into actions, instead he stiffened, unable to summon the rage and anger he would need in this fighting situation.

Not because the human was a child, as dragons knew even a baby could kill; Example: Stoick. But rather because this human was so inept physically that it was hard to take him seriously;

A threat to his existence? You make me laugh.

As he hesitated, this scrawny child decided to push an attack, he was up on his feet and thrusting his closed hand towards his chest in what Toothless thought may have been a stabbing motion, but with nothing in his hand. Toothless was too distracted to notice until he had already finished this pointless motion; it tickled a bit for the large dragon.

After this brief surge of energy, the boy fell over again; into an even more dejected heap on the floor. It was strange and oddly adorable. Toothless had to admit, this was the kind of behaviour you would expect from a hatchling and never anybody after their first year of life.

Seeing this useless show of aggression, Toothless slowly laughed at the ridiculous child in front of him. This child however, not swayed by the Night Fury's shift in behaviour, stayed in this frightened position.

Then at last, strangely for a human, he looked back at the dragon with confusion and then … understanding? The latter part, shown in the brightening of his face, now surprised the dragon.

Who would've thought such violent, thoughtless beings could possibly be understanding of other species?

In his confusion, and the mental shifts that came with it, he was suddenly struck with the strange nature of this occasion: this human had tried to kill him, failed (adorably!), and now seemed to understand the behaviour of the Night Fury, a strange occurrence.

On the other hand, Toothless realised that he hadn't tried to attack the human and didn't understand why (after all the queen was very strict on the 'kill on sight' rules).

However, now the events had passed, he was glad he hadn't tried to kill this small child; the boy was _certainly_ a strange human being and Toothless wanted to know more about him.

And possibly become friends. Although that's unlikely, right?

 **Hiccup:**

Now the dragon in front of him was appearing less and less scary as his peaceful state went on. He could never believe such a feared, cruel creature, as depicted by Vikings, could show such positive emotion

Hiccup himself was feeling happy that this dragon hadn't tried to kill him on sight; as he surely would have died in this situation (especially without Stoick around).

After a few more awkward moments, he decided to interact with this dragon more; to show that he meant no harm (especially now that violent action was out of the question with his humiliation, and of course the pointlessness of the attack without a knife).

He hoped the dragon would understand and not shoot him dead for his insolent behaviour; this hesitation had been present the entire time of his contact with the dragon.

He decided to reach out to the beast and gain connection through touch, through shared contact, since watching each other was getting nowhere.

His first attempt wasn't perfect; the dragon recoiled due to what he later realised was the sight of Hiccup's eyes still on the (magnificent, Hiccup thought now) dragon himself.

After his initial mistake, he now did the same action but with his eyes looking away from the dragon and closed, his thoughts being that this wouldn't be as scary for the dragon and he wouldn't see his death coming if the beast suddenly changed.

After a brief, though stressful, moment, he suddenly felt hard, warm scales pressed against his bare skin as well as a quick breath from the Night Fury. After this joyful, surprising encounter he returned his eyes to the dragon; now that he felt he had gained the dragon's trust.

Toothless obliged the human, and let his hand stay on his snout.

 **Toothless:**

After a continuous, motionless silence between both the dragon and the human boy; the boy suddenly moved his hand towards him and he quickly retreated from this motion, thinking that this motion was another attack.

Most importantly, the boy's eyes were firmly fixated on Toothless; allowing him to attack easier.

However, this action didn't make the boy resolve to fight again, to find a payoff from his trickery; Instead it seemed to make the twig-thin human more sorrowful.

Hiccup took back his hand carefully but, after a moment, he did the same motion; now without his eyes on him.

This trust and understanding was new to me, especially from a human, but I soon decided that this was a motion to gain friendship with me and, with nothing else close to paw, I put my snout touching his palm.

The reaction of the human to his acceptance was endearing to see, especially how Hiccup's once sad face lit up with a smile.

Toothless smiled back and looked straight into the friendly human's eyes. This is when he thought of something else to repay the boy's kindness. A gift of change once taught by his parents to him. A change that can bring them closer together.

Or, at least that's what he hoped.

 **End of chapter.**

 **A/N**

 **3000+ words due to previous update**

 **Please tell me small corrections which make for better reading without changing the plot. It's normally me working on the corrections and I always appreciate the help I get from others. I'll also be sure to try and collate my helpers somewhere else in this story.**

 **Please give me ideas for the rest of the story (apart from exactly how Hiccup will change, that is currently set.)**

 **Updates are not currently planned in a strict schedule, but I may reconsider.**


	2. 2: A subtle change

**Hiccup gone half fury**

 **A/N:**

 **Since I can't see any reviews correcting parts of the first story I'm just going to push on and hope it is still fine grammar-wise.**

 **Please PM/ review my story, I would especially like to know if reviews are normally hidden and you need to do something special to see them so PM me please!**

 **There is going to have to be some magic in this story to see through Hiccup's change**

 **I have an Easter egg planned: a special ability not mentioned in any of the films I have seen. After this chapter is posted I will leave up a poll on whether you want to see this, if not I will post this idea at the end of the next chapter as part of the author notes**

 **Also, now "(bold text)" will be dragon speech and '(bold text)' will be dragon thoughts (if I decide to add some)**

 **Now updated once! More details at the bottom**

 **Chapter 2: a subtle change**

 **(Toothless POV)**

Having made up my mind about helping this friendly human I set about creating a special blast to bring about the change I envisioned for this child. Very carefully I thought about using special places in my firing chamber, (where the flammable substance that forms my plasma blasts is produced and stored), and stimulated them into action, some parts make up the magical component of the gas and the other binds it specially so that it reacts when hitting another living thing. thus, the mixture of these strange ingredients travelled up my throat and swirled in my mouth collecting until I thought it was enough for what I intended to do. I opened my mouth preparing to breath this special concoction onto the human. Knowing at that moment if things weren't perfect then it could go horribly wrong. I made sure I felt I had enough of the right ingredients and that there was no danger of this going wrong. One deep breath in through his nose and out through my mouth sent the cloud onto the boy.

 **(Hiccup POV)**

The look on this dragon's face was strange, contorted even as another word as he seemed to be heavily concentrated on something. Seemingly not something external so he was probably dealing with an internal problem. As he concentrated on Thor knows what I realised that this was a good time to widen my understanding of him while he was otherwise engaged.

I started to widen my tunnel vision to notice the rest of the dragon and discovered that not only was he black (which had made me curious earlier, no other dragon seemed to be black in the book of dragons) but also had a body built for speed, an aerodynamic torso and head and massive wings for propulsion.

And I also noticed the strange arrangement of his wings, also not on other dragons with the bat-like main wings then a set of strange smaller after-wings then his tail fins and I noted that the presence of the after wings and the tail fins must allow great military aerobatics during raids (the geeky side of hiccup coming through).

The conclusion I gained was of a stealthy (black scales) speedy and manoeuvrable dragon, a beauty of biological design which continued to brighten my face with _awe_ for this dragon. Suddenly I saw the face of confusion subside as the dragon's mouth opened to show a dark purple swirl of gasses. Although my instincts told me to run from what may have been an attack from this dragon, awe and curiosity halted my thoughts of escape. That and I also knew that the normal blast was light blue, so it couldn't have been an ordinary attack.

I simply waited in the same place, frozen by conflicting emotions as the beast released this strange cloud which was splattered onto my skin before being absorbed into his body as the purple fluid quickly disappeared from the surface of my skin. For a short time, I was scared about the possibility that this was poison. Thankfully after multiple moments where nothing negative happened my initial confusion relaxed when all I got was a slight buzzing. Like that of excess energy in your body (after having too much sugar, for instance).

 **(Toothless POV)**

After this cloud had been released on this human Toothless smiled at a job well done. This, he thought, was both an adequate repayment for this human's unusual kindness and a small experiment to see how he reacted.

the chance that this was unsuccessful was small. Fortunately, he didn't see any sign of it not working as it should (something very noticeable would have occurred if it had gone wrong, like his hair catching fire).

He thought it was made perfectly enough that there would be no accidental downsides to his new abilities, a fact that pleased him greatly. When the natural confusion on this human's face emerged Toothless thought an explanation was in order, thankfully allowed by the first emergent feature of his change: understanding of dragonese.

" **hello human"** Toothless said to break the ice between him and this human who found his situation hard to comprehend

 **(Hiccup POV)**

As the confusion wore on I suddenly heard a foreign, strange, and deep voice saying: " **hello human** ". bewildered I looked around to see if any other human had somehow entered the area. intruding on this strange scene of friendliness between human and dragon.

After a period of looking around desperately for this intruder (this could destroy his battered reputation after all and force more bullying upon him) I decided I could not find this mysterious human. The dragon hit me with his tail. Slightly angry at the dragon for randomly assaulting me I now realised that the dragon was affixing me a look of boredom.

Confused I attempted a probing question to answer my intrigue: "did you really just talk?!". The dragon merely rolled his eyes to convey the thought: ' **duh, obviously** ' and then answered me bluntly: " **I could talk all the time. except now with your changes you can finally understand me".** Stunned beyond mortal limits I now realised I had strange protrusions from the back of my head, Surprised I wondered what these were for. eventually I realised that the noises around me were now much clearer than before, I could even hear the snores of the Vikings back in the village! And even though they did snore quite a lot the village was far away and the quality of hearing I am capable of having astounded me. I now assumed that these protrusions must be dragon ears! (cue the dragon laughing at how long I took to realise) And the same as the ones on the dragon in front of me! Now I was completely and utterly shocked. All I could do was wait patiently for this dragon's clearest explanation, maybe this beautiful beast could shed some light on this situation like he has already for the source of the voice I heard.

(Toothless POV)

After I explained the strange voice that this human could now hear his (understandable) shock as he struggled to make sense of this strange situation. Although a change (non-magical) came over him as he quickly recovered from this emotion and now stared into my eyes for an explanation. The speed of his recovery from shock and the trust he now seemingly had for me was both surprising and felt heart-warming.

Considering how quickly he adopted me, a dragon, as his temporary teacher, when I assume they are all told to loathe my very existence from a young age.

Now I felt it was the time to compose myself and continue to give him a more developed explanation of his changes. After a quick prayer to the dragon gods that he would understand I started off: " **what you just experienced is part of the reason I gave you my gift, you now have the ability to change certain parts of your body into dragon parts. Your ears are a subconscious reaction to me speaking to you but just for the record you can even understand me with your normal ears. This understanding that is now part of your mind is a part of my gift"** after a little more confusion at the realisation that he could now change his form he again regained his passive listening state.

I continued to give this human information, ecstatic that he was taking this so well and finding no downsides. Maybe I did give him the _perfect_ gift!: " **I also augmented your muscles so now you can finally be noticed by your father…"** another moment of shock as he realised I had seen part of his memories "… **now don't be worried. Yes, I did see your memories but in no way did I significantly alter your mind. Also, as a quick point I still haven't learned your name?"**

 **(** **Hiccup POV)**

Before I could stop myself I answered his last statement "uh… Hiccup! Hiccup H-Horrendous Haddock the third!" before I could react to my careless spilling of personal information to a person who had just rummaged through my _mind_ I heard his reply: " **thank you, my name is Toothless, glad to meet you"** I was shaken out of my internal disappointment by his (frankly exceptional) manners as well as the fact that he didn't _laugh_ at my name like others have done, this almost brought a tear to my eye as I realised that the one person who has truly accepted me is a dragon, my supposed worst enemy.

After this recovery I noticed the time with a start and stammered back a statement " um.. glad to meet you too. Sorry, but I can't stay! My father is expecting me back. Um.. Same time same place tomorrow?". After seeing a quick nod of understanding from _Toothless_ I ran back to my house to get back into bed before dad finds me. As I was running I wondered why I had asked to meet him again, it was a strange request after this strange encounter, but I soon realised it was true. I _did want_ to see him again. Also, what did he say about changing my muscles? I certainly feel much stronger now and it puzzled me. If it is true, and my I am stronger than before then … well, tomorrows going to be a bit more _interesting_.

 **(quick Stoick POV)**

I did wonder why hiccup's room seemed so quiet and dark, but I resolved to find out more tomorrow after working off this hangover. Also, what was Gobber talking about again? Something about sending Hiccup to dragon training.

That sounds like a great idea!

 **Long A/N (but important first part)**

 **a poll will come up on my profile after this story is published: I will look at the results tomorrow 2:00p.m (London time) to determine the direction of the next part of this story. Also, if the general result changes from not wanting the Easter egg to wanting it after I have looked at the poll results the first time, I will include it in later chapters. I am not currently willing to do the vice versa of this statement. Also, although I respect your opinion and will not include it as part of the main story if you do not want it to be I would love to add this feature into my story, so please vote for this Easter egg!**

 **Shout out to CKE1st for his excellent writing advice on his profile, please let him know and I will PM him. Also, quick note that I know the specifics of Hiccup's transformation is reflective off the same sort of transformation shown in "the adventures of hiccup the shapeshifter" (DarkForest11, another one of my favourite writers) this is not in any way an attempt to steal his idea to steal watchers of her stories but rather flattery in the form of imitation. I love her idea and I want to play around with my own version! (and I will give a quick PM to her as well!)**

 **Thank you and remember to review and PM me, I would love this interaction between YOU: the reader and ME: the writer. Hopefully we can improve this story together.**

 **This chapter is now updated to include more words and more detailed writing. There will likely be re writes in the future of this chapter as the new part is rushed and so I don't have time to check quality**


	3. 3: It's the little things that count

**Hiccup gone half fury chapter 3**

 **A/N:**

 **Thanks to the 3 people that voted on the poll on my profile**

 **The vote balance at the time of my check was 2 for and 1 against. This means that chapter 3 WILL have the Easter egg mentioned. (and after doing this chapter I will update my profile with more specifics)**

 **Chapter 3: It's the little things that count**

 **(Hiccup POV)**

As I cleared the forest the first rays of dawn were shining on the face of our battered settlement, no one was typically up in the morning, especially after a dragon attack the previous night so activity was low in the village. This was good for me because it allowed me to return to my bedroom without Stoick noticing and so promoting the illusion that I was in my bed all night. I safely managed to slip between my soft sheets before Stoick noticed I was not in my bedroom. Thanking Thor for allowing me to escape my father's attention I set about preparing the illusion that I had just got up and was preparing to go out in the village, hoping to avoid my father on his 'Vikingly' hangover when honestly Ragnarock could be better than meeting HIM in his temperamental state.

Having had my unappetising breakfast of meat (the warehouse where the meat was stored had gone up in flames in the raid and the meat was heavily burnt) I quickly tip toed to the door to leave without Stoick noticing me, I was halfway out when the door let out a heavy squeak. A panic washed over me as I wondered what to do now, go out the door and try my luck for if Stoick can't find me all day or wait here and converse with him, albeit awkwardly, to calm down his temperamental state before he was found somewhere in the village and got an earful from my father. Having chosen the former, I resumed my try to get out the house. I was just about to start a walk away from my house when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder, immobilising me with fear. The hand turned me right around back into the house and face to irritated face with the Chief/My father who I assumed had an earful planned. Great.

After I walked back to the table and sat down Stoick came around the side of the table sat on the chair in front of me. As I prepared for the thunderous accusations to roll out his mouth (Stoick could very well have been the great god Thor in that regard) and while my head was hung low It never came. Surprised and feeling a small sense of déjà vu from my encounter with the night fury the night before I was unsure of what the great chief Stoick had to say. It still didn't come. Now honestly impatient to get the accusations out of the way for a normal day ahead I looked up and into his eyes. This is where I was struck with the unique expression he had on his face. His face was the face of calculation, normally reserved for meetings at the great hall but never in our house. He sized me up. And for the first time he did not look absolutely disgraced when he laid eyes on my thin frame but rather a strange shade of hope shone from the recesses of his irises. Now honestly curious about what he had to say I prepared to listen closely

 **(Stoick POV)**

As I arose from another night of drinking I forced my hangover down just for a moment to survey the village in the late dawn light. Luckily parts were still standing which is always a partial victory to us Vikings, however there were still parts which needed repair and supplies to be replenished. That can be done, and these issues aren't the reason that I hate these dragons, the reason I hate these dragons can't currently be seen from this window. And that concerns the Human cost of the dragon raid.

In the face of these worthy but ruthless enemies our village always needs people to protect our innocent from slaughter, these are our dragon fighters and why I am especially concerned with them is that I hoped my son could be one of their glorious number. One way or another.

It is at this moment I hear the main entrance door creak loudly and demanding attention at once. I made sure all the clothes are in the right place on my body before going down to see who needed me at this current hour.

To my surprise I found my son hiccup half in-half out the door, seemingly immobilised by a decision. Just as he was about to walk off I stopped his advance and turned him to face me. As I faced him I realised I needed to talk about dragon training to my son. I escorted him to the dining table and sat down across from him. While he was looking dejected in that old wood chair I took the opportunity to evaluate him. I saw a scrawny weakling at first, just like all the other times but I made myself push further into my evaluation.

As the moments passed on he looked up and at my face. Looking at his face I was overcome with the pride that our family name has commanded in all it's generations. I looked at him again and I saw promise, a strange word to ascribe onto the fishbone but I was sure that if he came from my family then he was going to be the best dragon fighter berk had ever seen, fishbone or not he was going to be another source pride along our family line.

With my goal in mind I set about explaining this to my son. "Son!" I boomed to bolster his spirit but confusingly this made him more reclusive on that small wooden chair. "We need to talk about your future as a dragon fighter! One of the most glorious positions in our village!" this was getting stranger, he was being increasingly disconnected, like he didn't believe in what I was saying. I was understandably furious at his disregard for our villages sacred tradition. I prepared to bolster him again:

"Our village needs US! The courageous dragon fighters to protect ourselves from the dragon horde that relentlessly attack us! Without us there would be no village, only slaughter and dragon fire! Can you see that we protect them from the scourge? Can't you feel your chiefly instincts roaring to protect your people?!"

Again, my attempts were met with a look of internal disappointment, so I decided to give him the entire story as blunt as I could: "Son" I boomed again "you are going into dragon training and you are going to become the best dragon fighter. No matter what happens" this is when I noticed he now was trying to reply so I let him speak, already anticipating the pride I would feel when he said he wanted to become the best dragon fighter.

"but dad, I won't kill a dragon, I _Can't_ kill a dragon".

My anticipation shattered with his foul language. I did suspect Loki for his trickery when I heard these words! From my own son no less! I was determined to knock these foul thoughts from his mind, but I realised that even though my words wouldn't sway him. An old friend at the dragon academy might. "hiccup you are going to fight dragons. In the dragon academy, at noon. Or else…" Come on Gobber, you can't fail me now old friend, you can't fail me now.

 **(Narrator POV)**

At the dragon training Academy, the other teenagers were upbeat about their first experience fighting dragons. Hiccup walked right into the middle of them and was treated as you'd expect. Jeering and insults. Hiccup really did not want to come here but the last part of Sticks speech was something he dreaded even more.

Hiccup got ready to fight like the rest of the teens before Gobber announced the dragons that they would be fighting while gesturing to each cage (with Fishlegs excitedly talking about each dragon's abilities that Gobber mentioned until Gobber shouted at him to stop). Gobber then walked up to the last cage and announced, "now this here is the gronckle and the dragon you'll be fighting for today!" he said before pulling the lever and releasing the bar. Snotlout asked "aren't you supposed to tell us what to do?" Gobber pulled a smile and said" I believe in learning on the job"

The door opened to reveal the Gronckle and the screams began.

 **(Hiccup POV)**

After the gate opened I was less interested in rushing about like the other teens and more curious if I could now understand the dragon we were supposed to be fighting. Like magic a foreign garbled voice now announced, "I will kill all you evil humans for locking me up in that place!" I noted I could understand the Gronckle now and decided to mess around with the dragon and the other teens.

With a smile I whispered "hey we aren't all that bad" she looked curiously at me and I nodded to confirm to her I could understand the language I whispered back another statement "you hate these teens? Good, I hate them too. Now let's Mess. Them. Up."

5 minutes later the scene was complete chaos as I helped Meatlug (as I learned her name as) to fend off all the others that continued attacking her without a second thought. Gobber tried to give the other teenagers advice from above but I was able to warn Meatlug of all incoming attacks until the Viking's were all exhausted and had lost the game. At this moment She turned to me to say:

"but what about you? Won't I have to attack you too?"

I replied saying "if you act exhausted then they will have to put you back in the pens. Then you don't have to attack me. I'll get you some food later to compensate."

As the thought of food ran across her mind she gladly accepted my instruction and acted tired until they put her in the cage. I was glad I could make friends with this dragon and not have to use violence. If I could gain the trust of the other dragons then dragon training will get easier and more fun! The only problem is he had to make sure that no one noticed me interacting with the dragons. Something that will only get harder once people realised the dragons weren't attacking me at all.

After an accomplished day where all the teens were grumbling of the various injuries they had, while I was unharmed by the dragon I prepared for my more secretive night life. I did not want anyone to see me when I'm visiting dragons, so I had to be very stealthy, I even dyed some of my clothes black. The fact that a special process had produced the colour didn't matter to him now. What did matter was exploring the friendship he now had with two dragons and finding out about the huge cache of knowledge that the simple-minded people of berk ignored.

I sneaked over to the dragon ring with a basket of food on my back. Before Toothless made me stronger I would never have lifted a basket like this through the forest. At the dragon ring I noticed two guards watching the dragons. These guards were here to prevent the dragons of the raid from releasing the captured dragons.

Although It was hard for them to see me when I was in the darkness of the forest they had the help of a night vision torch. This torch highlighted the surface of the headland so that it was impossible to use the bridge, like I normally would have done.

Cursing I looked around for another way in. Remembering the gift Toothless gave me I formed a pair of claws for my hands. ' _perfect_ ' I decided to sneak around them by hiding under the cliff line. I carefully walked as close to the cliff line on the bridge as I could without being spotted in the flickering yellow of the night vision torch. Then I braced myself and jumped onto the cliffside just below the flat top of the outcrop of the cliff line. After digging in my claws, I started moving around the side of the cliff to the back of the arena where the guards couldn't spot me.

When I was safely out of their sight I crawled back onto the top of the cliff. Heaving from the unexpected manoeuvre even though my muscles weren't even aching. After recovering from the stress of a new exercise I started climbing up one side of the old grey stone walls. After climbing high enough I decided to drop down through the chain roof of the dragon ring. I prepared myself to jump and concentrated on getting my wings out to slow my descent after passing through the ring in the chained roof of the dragon arena.

After a few lucrative words of self-encouragement, I slipped myself over the ledge into the arena, bracing myself for the landing and trying to deploy my wings, I realised with a panic that I wasn't sure how to do this. After a few tenths of a second he felt a strange warmth around his midsection and his descent slowed dramatically until he dropped gently on the ground. Not sure what had helped me I decided just to finish my business here.

I dropped off my barrel in front of a very thankful Gronckle and emptied the contents into the cage. Glad to see his new friend in happy state he turned to exit and realised he needed another plan. I couldn't go back out the way I had come in thanks to the Loki-darned chained ceiling that overshadowed the ring. This led to only one way back out. Past the guards at the main gate. For this I knew I needed a distraction. And the bigger the distraction the better. I smiled because I knew just the thing.

 **(Guards POV)**

It was getting close to midnight on the guard duties and both guards were severely bored. Sure, they all had been exposed to Stoicks rousing speech on why their duties were important for the island, but they simply thought they would never see Action.

"hey (guard 1 name), do you think we should just finish this shift early" one guard said to the other

"sorry (guard 2) but you know Stoick. He'll find out. Also, maybe something interesting will happen to- "he was cut off by a deafening explosion and its echo. Before they could recover a second explosion rocked by their ears

"hey, we should go see what's happening!" the half deaf guard said to his compatriot. They carefully opened the gate and, after seeing nothing intensely suspicious walked around to find the exact origin of the noise. Just as they had broken off to the left to do a circular scan of the arena they heard a loud rippling of air right beside them and two light blue flame trails going outside the arena. They looked to see if they could find this mysterious fast being, but the tail end of the blue flame trails quickly disappeared into the forest. Never to be seen again.

The guards stiffened quickly. Something had happened at the dragon arena, something unbelievably fast. And none of the Guards wanted to tell Stoick. After all they did help it escape, and that is bad enough. They both silently agreed never ever to tell this to Stoick for fear of his wrath. One of them had gotten extremely unlucky with his fear and now needed a new pair of undies.

 **(Hiccup POV)**

I rushed through the woods as fast as I could towards Toothless. I was determined to know as much as he could about the mysterious night fury before daybreak and the resuming of his boring, almost uneventful daytime life. As I was running I noticed I was running considerably faster than I'd expect, my jumps went higher than anyone else could possibly have jumped and the warm feeling around his midsection had come back again.

This all combined to allow me to reach Toothless in record time.

As my friend saw me he ducked his head in greeting before motioning for me to follow him through the woods. I did as I was asked as he led me to a beautiful cove hidden on this side of the island.

" **This is where I live my friend Hiccup, and this is also where I expect to answer your hundreds of questions. Please sit down and tell me your query"** Toothless said in a calm and polite tone

Surprised by his acceptance I struggled to come up with the questions he referred to. But currently one of the critical issues in my mind was "what was that strange warming in my midsection? And how did it make me faster?"

Pleased with Hiccup's request the dragon answered me: " **what you experienced was dragon fire propulsion. We are unique as a species in that we have special nozzles in our skin which can direct our dragon fire in most directions around us. This allows us to accelerate quickly in a short time when a pulse of dragon fire is used and allows for faster top speeds when a consistent flame Is used. It is a special and practical part which allows us greater performance in flight."**

Awed by the explanation I tried to put into practise what he told me. I started a slow jog then directed a pulse of plasma into my special 'nozzles' I was instantly surprised with the sudden increase of speed. I lost control and ran into a tree.

But now I had cleared that question out of my head I needed to know one more before resuming my daytime act: "how I use my wings?". Toothless simply grinned and replied

" **simply think hard about using them to fly in a certain direction at first. After that It becomes natural to use them**." Toothless laughed at the disbelieving face that Hiccup gave him before explaining further " **it seems easy, but it is hard to think straight when falling. Which is how our first flights happen.** "

Thankful of his explanation and wary of the time passing far too quickly I quickly thanked and said my goodbyes to him before speeding back to be in my bed before sundown.

A/N:

My longest chapter so far at 3000+ words. I feel proud but immensely tired after grinding away at this for about 5 hours with breaks.

New chapters should be less regular now that I have more to write each chapter. I hope to continue 1 chapter a day.

Please review the story and PM me. These interactions are welcomed

Please remember to check my profile if you want more information on the Easter egg that I am sure you noticed. Unfortunately this may take a while to add as I am currently just about to go to bed.

I am now closing the hiccup easter egg poll


	4. 4: flight, and Zippleback friends

**Hiccup gone half fury chapter 4**

 **A/N**

After switching typical chapter length from 2000+ to 3000+ all updates will be slower.

I will still work on these chapters every day when I am able to do so.

Dragon fire propulsion will be shortened to DFP

Hiccup hasn't flown with his wings yet, it will happen eventually, and I will make sure it won't be as easy as the Toothless makes it sound on behalf of Nightfuryfanfic. After all it's no fun if Hiccup gets along easily is it?.

The last part of this story (spoiler alert!) with the zippleback (/ end of spoiler) doesn't seem good so far So please be aware that when you read it I will be re writing this part tomorrow

 **Chapter 4: flight. and Zippleback friends**

 **(Hiccup POV)**

After discarding my old shirt, I noticed a few burned tears around the midsection. Noting this I now made a mental note to not use the DFP before I could at least make the shirt fireproof. Those burn marks would easily have given away that something was wrong. Especially since they were symmetrical on both sides.

Another few hours of sleep so I could still slightly function in the daytime and Then I pressed on to continue doing my typical daily routine. This was slightly more stressful as I was anxious that a dragon body part would appear. The dragon parts shouldn't appear during my day, but I couldn't be too careful, after all if one Viking suddenly sees something dragon on me then I would instantly be labelled spawn of Loki.

After making sure I was calm enough to enter the village without suddenly changing into a dragon I donned my boots and left for a forcedly calm walk through the half-awake village. I was glad my dad didn't stop me again as I was quite sure I couldn't take that stress again. And if one Viking was _never_ to see my transformation it was my superstitious father.

I steadily walked towards the dragon ring to meet the anxious teens and hopefully calm any suspicions they had of the strangely unhurt classmate. Reaching the area at the end of the bridge with the teens I prepared myself to handle the provocative questions.

"where have you been?"

" _someone's_ not got any scars!"

"get serious Hiccup you're too much of a coward!"

I hated each of these remarks and forced myself to calm down before answering.

"um- I was having breakfast! Yeah. Back at the house a huge breakfast. And I was just lucky that the dragon got tired before me. I would have been pummelled if she still had energy! And yes, I am a coward and I'm never going to change. Just give up already, you _know_ I'm not one of you guys."

They all accepted my patient answer. All except one wild shield maiden:

"Wait, did you just say that monster is a she. How would _you_ know!" Astrid (internal romantic sigh) said as she prodded me with the tip of her axe

Shocked before forcing myself to calm down before something ugly happened I formulated an excuse: "Oh um.. sorry. Gobber kept on referring to the Gronckle as female, when I was in the forge, so yes … that's why"

After checking what I said with a burning look of distrust in her eye she eventually relented. I quietly released a stored breath as her suspicion subsided.

"but you'd better now I'm watching you now so nothing funny or…" she suddenly punctuated, marking the end with a draw of her finger across her throat.

As normal Astrid managed to make me uncomfortable, but I thanked Odin she wasn't currently trying to kill me. Thankfully Gobber finally arrived to bring up the gates and let us into the ring, distracting Astrid for a while.

"today you will be charged with fighting the deadly Nadder, this lesson is about agility. The Nadder Is quick and light on its feet, your job is to be quicker and lighter!" Gobber announced before pulling the lever to release the Nadder

The teenagers quickly scattered in panic to avoid being noticed and therefore chased by the Nadder. I attempted to stay in it's sight but crouched behind a shield, so it looked like I was acting defensive. The Nadder immediately noticed me and sprinted over.

"Stupid human you deserve a heavily mauling for your stupidity staying out in the open!" The Nadder screeched at me

"Oh, come on I'm not that stupid, I just wanted to talk to you face to face that's all" I replied in a whisper, being delighted at the look of confusion that washed over her features.

"you can understand me human?" the Nadder screeched again.

"I can understand all you dragons and I don't want to fight any of you. That's why I only have a shield" I responded

"well what am I supposed to do with you now?" she continued while I edged back and forth with my shield to continue the illusion I was trying to fight this Nadder

"you leave me alone and I can warn you about sneak attacks by the other humans and I'll give you fish later. Also, nice to meet you my name is Hiccup" I said trying to gain her trust like I did for Meatlug. She accepted my offer and turned away, seeming to the others like she had given up looking for me because I was in her blind spot.

I laughed quietly as I surveyed the scene before me as a similar fight scene humorously repeated itself (with obvious differences due to the different dragon). 5 teens went in and 5 teens came out in bruised and battered heaps with a completely unharmed dragon standing in the middle giggling in the middle.

A brief change was seen when Astrid started to rise before a heavy barrage of spikes into her shield forced her down, winded. I didn't want the teens to be seriously hurt, just humiliated in combat. I was thankful that she was gentle with the teens considering I knew from reading the dragon manual that she could be far deadlier.

As Gobber disappointedly dragged the Nadder back to the cage past the heap of exhausted humans on the floor she turned her head around and sent me a small comment.

"thank you human for your help. My name is Stormfly and I await your food tonight."

I sighed as I realised I was going to have to carry more to feed Meatlug AND Stormfly while walking out the ring. Afterwards there was a quick meeting of the dragon trainees with Gobber to discuss their disappointing performance in the ring. Each one of them reflected on the various bruises they received while I remembered how I had helped Stormfly counter their attacks.

Luckily after no one asked what I had been doing the meeting ended and the teens went back into their homes while I prepared to do my typical nocturnal activities.

First I went to the storage sheds to pick up the food that I needed to feed the dragons I'd befriended. Afterwards the typical walk to the bridge to plan how to infiltrate the ring, again. As Odin apparently smiled upon me I noticed that not only had the guards not doubled to stop me from entering but also the two guards were now around the back of the ring having figured this Is how I got in.

I simply strode right up to the Gate and opened it as quietly as I could. I emptied my baskets into the respective cages of my friends and started the walk back, carefully making sure the gate was how I had found it lest a Guard noticed. That time the infiltration was easy and undetected. I hoped that It would remain that way.

Then I prepared for my run to Toothless. I took off my upper body clothes to prevent them from being burnt before attaching them around my neck and sprinting towards the cove. Reaching the cove even quicker without the hindrance of my clothes preventing the nozzles from working properly.

I decided I might attempt a glide with my wings to start learning how to use them. I Jumped off trying to fly and failed as I Landed with a terrific splash in the lake in the middle of the cove. Dragging my exceedingly wet frame out of the water I was suddenly face to face with my best friend Toothless. Before I could give him my exceedingly sarcastic response to his flight training the night before… he licked my face with his tongue.

"Now why did you have to do that?" I angrily asked as he gained a smile on his face from my reaction to his unexpected action.

" **to shut you up. stupid. Like I said flying is very hard to do when you're falling."** Toothless replied in a mocking voice

A quick sarcastic look from me before I responded, "at this rate I'll just stick to my DFP and not worry about my wings."

His smile widened before he explained more " **well, for now you can't because you're too wet for the DFP to work properly. Until you either learn how to increase you're fire power or your nozzles dry out you can't use them. So, for now let's focus on the winged part of flying."**

After accepting the fact that my other form of propulsion was temporarily useless I decided to learn how to use my wings. I nodded at the slightly infuriating night fury as he led me to the lip of the cove to retry using my wings.

My first time I crashed into the water, no wings on my back. Coming up for breath I heard Toothless mocking me from the top:

" **if you don't have wings you can't use them!"** he forced out between hearty laughs

He laughed as I walked back up, now even wetter than before, I heard Toothless now telling me to form my wings. I did so before Jumping. Now he asked me to extend and retract my wings as well as give them a few flaps to get me used to them.

" **Now attempt it again but with you're wings extended!"** Toothless cheerfully ordered

I tried again with my wings extended and felt myself gliding. Elated I started celebrating before my wild movements caused me to lose control and crash again into the water.

" **Don't do that before you can use your tail for stability."** Toothless again mocked from above.

After exiting the water, I wondered what he was talking about with regards to "tail" before I felt something swaying behind me, looking back I saw I had a pair of after wings to go with my main wings and saw… unsurprisingly … the tail that Toothless must have been talking about. I now had the same wing set as Toothless and it felt good that I was so like my friend now.

I came up and tried again. This time I glided before doing the next part of flying: concentrating on going somewhere specific. I mentally willed my body to go in a certain direction and it obliged. I did it again, and my body changed the direction of my flight again.

Eventually I didn't have to keep up this mental chore as my body automatically responded by flying wherever I want to go without the normal brain process. This was like the way the subconscious processes involved in walking worked, for example.

Excited by the prospect that I could fly wherever I wanted I celebrated, not looking at where I was going until I crashed into the beach. Now Toothless looked at me with a face of pride with a small bit of mirth as he realised I understood how to fly. Unfortunately, he gave me another sarcastic comment after giving me this look.

" **I think you've got the understanding of how to fly. Now you just need to pay attention to where you're going!"** he said as he laughed again at my comical mistake

Not sure what to make of his comment I decided to take it as a misdirected compliment and so after thanking him for helping him fly I informed him that I was going back to my house.

He watched me leave with pride and a bit of sorrow. Clearly he didn't like seeing me leave.

(Toothless POV)

I saw Hiccup walking away again back to his village and felt lonely. I wanted him to stay for longer. He had a curious attitude and a shining appreciation for me as a dragon. I understood he had to go back to the village. Otherwise the other murderous Vikings would look for him and find me, which would get us both killed.

I realised I now felt like a parent figure to him after he had made me his friend and patiently listened to my guidance. I felt nice, I felt appreciated and I can only hope that one day he would be able to visit me all the time. Without the strict limits on our time together.

Thinking of him as part of the Viking clan made me mad. It was clear to me now that he wasn't made for the behaviour expected at his village. He wasn't a 'Viking' in the traditional sense, but rather a friend of dragons. I now felt that I would be a far greater parent than the ignorant parents he must have in the village. On that thought who were his parents?

(Hiccup POV)

I was sad to finish another meeting with Toothless as I sped back to my house (my DFP nozzles had dried out and were functioning again). I hated how we couldn't stay together during the day due to the strict authority of the dragon hating Vikings. Although I didn't want to leave my people I saw that they needed to change and maybe I can be the one to change them. After these thoughts I started to sleep off my long hours of activity.

Awakening the next morning I changed and went downstairs for breakfast as usual. After finishing breakfast, I could hear my father quickly getting dressed and coming into the living room. Fearing a lecture, I quickly left the house and started walking to the dragon ring.

(Toothless POV)

I patiently waited at the forest edge to find out about Hiccup's parents. I wondered whether they were like him and non-aggressive. If so then I can finally understand why Hiccup befriended me and doesn't want to fight dragons.

I stayed in place watching the house that I saw him enter. After a few minutes I saw him leave again to walk somewhere else but what I was interested in was who else was in his house. After a patient wait I saw his father and I was shocked and revolted.

Who I saw was the most aggressive dragon killer that I had ever heard of. He was the chief of this village and had ruthlessly killed many dragons. Now I desperately wanted to know How was HE the father of my friend. I held a burning fury for this unexplainable Trick of nature: someone so kind with a father that violent, my fury almost managed to manifest into a plasma blast but I dissipated it before it could reach that stage.

Now I wanted to save Hiccup from his violent father. To save him from the life where he didn't belong. However, he would have to hear Hiccup's view first. After all Hiccup had somehow resisted the violent whims that his father taught him so maybe there was another side that Toothless didn't know. He would have to wait until night time

(Hiccup POV)

He reached the dragon arena again where almost all the teens were collected together. They were currently quite pessimistic after their last two battles and were predicting a third defeat. Then Astrid arrived and changed their attitudes. She did this by accusing them all being cowards then re directed their anger towards the thought of winning over a dragon.

Now that the teens were once again in a battle frenzy I changed my attitude. Astrid had made them eager, now my job trying to befriend the dragon would be more complicated. But, I smiled, much more entertaining. I was eager to see my rivals humiliated on the floor once again. These people had bullied me for as long as I could remember and now I could finally get back at them.

"Today you will be against a Zippleback…" Gobber said as he pulled the lever and the bar raised "but remember! Zipplebacks are extra tricky, one head breathes gas while the other head lights it! Find out which is which"

(Narrator POV): A cloud of grey smoke drifted across the ring from the Zippleback cage. Barf and Belch, the two heads of the zippleback, cautiously came out of their cage before surveying the Inside of the dragon ring with their thermal vision. They quickly spotted one group of two and another of. The two heads snarled, this was irritating for them as groups were harder to trick into throwing their pails of water.

Then they saw one heat signature on its own around the entrance to the ring. The Zippleback heads turned to each other and nodded through the smoke and they Sneaked closer to this unaware human. Barf quickly readied his signature gas to freak out this stupid human.

When they were close enough Barf pushed his head towards the human. Just before they were going to trick the human into throwing the water onto Barf instead of Belch. Then Barf suddenly recoiled in shock.

"what is it Barf, what did the human do to you?" Belch asked his sibling head.

"nothing Belch! It's Just that he doesn't have his bucket, he threw it away!"

"Because I didn't want to irritate you before I could talk to you" A voice from the human said, now they also knew it was a "he".

Both were shocked at the revelation that he could understand him "what do we do now Belch!" Barf yelled "we can't trick him because he hasn't got a bucket and he can understand us!"

"I hope you two can Just talk to me without trying to blow me sky high. I just want to Talk, and my name is Hiccup." The boy now known as Hiccup.

After a quick snort at the absurd name for the boy Belch decided to come through the smoke and intimidate the boy. "and why _wouldn't_ we blow you sky high? It's easy and entertaining!" Belch said.

"because I can give you the food you've missed out on for so long" Hiccup stated bluntly.

Both heads struggled to find a reply to the kind offer but their stomach made the first reply for them, a loud rumbling that they could see confused even the other teens. "we would love that" Belch replied "they give us only enough to keep us fed and not enough for us to properly fight, we would be much happier if we got more to eat. Now what could we do for _you_ now kid? besides, you know, not blowing you up?"

"Just leave me alone, and mess around with the other teens, I don't care that much for them. Also, you were talking about blowing things up?" hiccup said

Both heads nodded

"blow things up" affirmed hiccup "that should be fun to watch".

Belch laughed in glee at the permission from hiccup to proceed with scaring the other teens. He turned to Barf. "you ready to scare the Helheim out of these teenagers?"

Barf replied in a posh accent "well you know that's what I do right?" he smiled before changing his face back to his usual trickster one. "Let's make them run screaming from the ring". They both laughed as they headed back into the smoke from whence they came.

(Hiccup POV)

As they turned back into the smoke I prepared both to watch the show and plan how to get the 4 baskets into the ring tonight. I quickly gave up the boring planning process, and, switching my eyes to night furies to see the heat forms of the other riders through the smoke.

I laughed as I saw Barf and Belch sneak up to each one of the groups and give them a scare. They even pulled Tuffnut into the smoke, messed around with him a bit in the smoke and released the screaming boy so he ran right past the group of girls and sat, shivering from fear, at the entrance of the Ring.

The other teens tried to stand their ground, even with the sounds of explosions close to them. However eventually I saw Barf and Belch had beat back the arrogant teens back to the entrance with each of them having small bruises and small burns. The Zipplebacks turned to go back into the cage before Gobber made them. Before they left completely Barf turned his head to look back through and shout back to Hiccup. "Bye Hiccup! Don't forget to bring us that food!"

I smiled and replied carefully so that only the zippleback could hear me "don't worry, I promise you will have the food tonight.

"and did you Like the show?" Barf said with a little pride evident in his voice

"I loved it" I stated back. I really had loved the performance they had given me. It was simply masterful how they had both managed to trick each teen. And then surprise the Helheim out of them.

As Gobber both closed the gate of the Zippleback cage and opened the gate to the ring we walked out into the sunshine outside. After quickly remembering to switch back my eyes I started to notice the unnerving conversations around me.

"that _Hiccup_ doesn't even have a scratch on him! I want to show him how pain feels!" Snotlout grumbled as he glared at Hiccup

"Why do the dragons always have to leave _him_ alone, _someone_ deserves a beating for incompetence" Tuffnut agreed while nursing the marks from the dragon's 'playful' side

"That _boy_ can't even Lift a pail of water (because they thought he dropped it accidentally), someone needs to know how to be a real warrior! When I get to him he's going to have payback for his mistakes." Astrid shouted angrily as she looked at the (presumed) weakling.

I allowed myself to drop back a bit, both to edge out of their furious conversation and set about bringing the barrels to the dragon ring by the end of sunset.

(Narrator POV)

Hiccup snuck around the outskirts of the tired village at dusk. Helped by the lowered visibility in the face of the dark orange sunlight provided at dusk he quickly reached the warehouse. While he was in the warehouse he quickly attempted to shovel all the food he needed into the 4 baskets he needed (one for each dragon head). He quickly left the warehouse to avoid the patrolling Vikings who now proceeded slowly about 100 meters away from him.

Unnoticed by their wary Eyes he quickly dashed towards the forge, leaving the baskets behind so he could find a way to transport them. He thanked his luck as he found the dragon cart which was easily big enough to fit the barrels despite the other use of the object which he found quite disturbing. He carefully moved through the village with his dragon eyes out to help him see other people who might see him.

After a few thrown stones to distract certain Vikings who got too close he reached the barrels again. He used the straps provided in the cart to strap the barrels to the cart. He stopped for a moment to consider the irony of using a cart, normally used to capture dragons, to feed dragons. After strapping all the barrels securely to the top, he set off towards the dragon ring.

After taking off his shirt to allow his DFP he sped along the cart track towards the ring. As he reached the arena he slowed so he could survey the scene. As he saw the guards had moved back out front he decided to use his newly gained flying skills to confuse them. He first shifted into night fury form to be unrecognised as a human then Jumped off the side of the bridge.

He brought himself back to his flying mentality after a few moments of falling. He quickly pulled out of his dive and gained altitude until he was a reasonable distance above the Vikings then levelled off. As he glided silently above him he once again wondered how to gain their attention he decided to act injured.

He flew off and then came around again with sudden shrieks of pain emanating from his mouth. He attempted to fly as raggedly as he could towards the ground behind the ring. After Faking a hard landing, he turned and hopped off the ledge again into the valley. While the Vikings ran to investigate the fallen dragon, he flew through the valley back to the bridge. With a half loop from below the bridge he changed back to human to land unsteadily back onto the solid surface of the old stone bridge.

Now that the Vikings were distracted he pulled the cart into the ring. After giving the food to the grateful dragons and receiving an apology of distrust from the zippleback the dragons suddenly asked him about the dragon that came overhead in pain. Sighing Hiccup revealed that he was that dragon to confuse the Viking's. The dragons were now confused how this clearly human boy could possibly be that night fury.

Hiccup sighed again as he once again transformed into a night fury for them to see the truth. After recovering from their shock from looking at this weird transformation the dragons apologised for not trusting his word.

Satisfied Hiccup ran back out of the arena. he closed the door and decided to leave the dragon cart as well as the barrels at the dragon ring storage area like he normally did. He then ran towards Toothless again.

A/N

The end has now been re-written. I'm sorry for those who liked the previous ending better. The reason I changed this was because of a suspicion of mine confirmed by a PM

Chapter 4 ended up at around 4000 words by accident, please do not expect this length of a chapter later. Also bear in mind that my normal 3000-word chapters will be updated each two days after the last one (new or updated). This hopefully will avoid all the mistakes that I make when I'm fatigued.

Please review the story and/or PM me, I feel like there are parts of this that could have been written better and I would love it if people helped me find and correct these parts


	5. 5: things to learn, taking a stand

**Hiccup gone half fury**

 **A/N:**

 **An explanation of dragon fire in scientific terms. Certain parts are still based off magic, but I hope this gives you an insight into how the fire works (in my view).**

 **What is the complete layout of Berk?**

 **Now a complete Narrators POV without focusing too much on the personal views. This was after a suggestion to cut down the amount of POVs, additional advice is welcome though**

 **5: Things to learn. taking a stand against the bullies.**

 **(Narrator POV)**

Again, Hiccup ran through with his shirt off and DFP at full throttle. He passed trees at breakneck speed while the DFP allowed him to instinctively dodge all obstacles and left two bright blue trails burning through the forest. He reached the cove and, without stopping, Glided down to the white sand below. After a smooth landing he started to search around for Toothless with his thermal vision.

He couldn't seem to see Toothless in the cove with his thermal vision, initially confused he suddenly felt a presence brush by him.

Toothless said from behind him " **using your thermal vision? Well sadly that won't work, We dragons barely emit heat because of our scales.** "

Hiccup was shocked that the Dragon had managed to sneak behind him so easily. However, when he heard Toothless he knew his mistake and sighed. "why do you have to be so stealthy all the time, you stupid reptile."

Toothless reacted with a mocking hurt tone: " **Me a stupid reptile? You should look at yourself,** _ **Oh great dragon fighter**_ _"_

Hiccup responded to the dragon's sarcastic comment with a pretend Arrogance. "well I'll have _you_ know that no dragon has even been able to touch me in that ring."

Toothless casually responded " **yeah I know. Because you feed them, so they leave you alone**." Seeing Hiccup shocked he continued with a snicker at Hiccup's expense " **What? Did you believe that I can't fly? I most certainly can. Also, can I say, Nice plan earlier, using yourself to imitate an injured dragon and then escaping before the Vikings could reach you. Smart, for a human."** He added at the end to imply the normal state of Hiccup's race.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. He stated to the dragon "Can we please skip the insults…" Toothless laughed "and just get on with the lecture?"

Toothless replied with a small show of composing himself then started talking. " **well I thought I might talk to you about basic magic, specifically fire magic. Fire magic allows dragons like me to change how our fire acts. For this we release a certain chemical from places in our fire chambers**."

Hiccup paused his curious silence to ask a question. "how do you activate these places?"

Toothless responded " **Glad you asked. Firstly, you need to know where these places are. So, for example the ingredient used to make your fire stronger is here.** "

He said as he gave a quick punch to Hiccup's chest. Hiccup began to feel a small amount of liquid fill an unknown organ. Hiccup then asked for an explanation of what this organ was.

" **that organ there is the fire chambers. I had to fit it into your frame by making the lungs smaller and then more efficient."**

Hiccup gasped at the strange and dangerous organ He had Just learned about. "So, I can make fire?"

Toothless shrugged " **You already are, that's how DFP works after all."**

Hiccup was shocked at the fact he both _had_ this strange organ and _already used it_. But after his shock Hiccup pressed on with questioning. "So how do I form a shot?"

Toothless gave his explanation. " **first for the plasma blast. You already have the gas in your firing chamber, to form a shot you must focus on getting the gas concentrated into a ball. Then as it travels up your throat you must line up the shot and add a little blow from the lungs. This causes the ball to react with the oxygen in your breath. The back of the ball starts to explode, driving the ball forward. While in the air the ball starts slowly decomposing until hitting the target. When It hits the target the ball splatters and all of the liquid spontaneously reacts.** "

Hiccup was in awe at the long explanation that the dragon gave but stayed silent for now.

" **and that's the basic mechanics of fire breathing in full, try to have a go yourself** "

Hiccup concentrated on the things told by the dragon and gave his own shot into the air. It started off quick but quickly slowed, dropped, and exploded violently. Hiccup needed further explanation at the disappointing flight path.

Toothless continued his lesson " **the horrible trajectory is caused because the front part of the plasma blast reacts with the oxygen and explodes as well. This quickly causes the ball to slow down. To combat this, we use this bit…** " he gave a sharp punch to another part of hiccup's chest. Hiccup felt a strange sticky substance build up at the entrance to the firing chamber " **This coats the front of the blast in a non-reactive coating. This means that the front part doesn't start reacting until when it hits the target and is dispersed. Also, an important part is through focusing on these certain parts you can set your default blast** "

Hiccup concentrated on this part until his body suddenly said that this part was now active. Surprised by the sudden bodily reaction given from this new body part he was only relaxed when he realised he had now done what Toothless told him to do.

Toothless gave an encouragement " **well? Try it**!"

Hiccup did as ask and started to build up another blast. This blast travelled far faster than his earlier one, but the explosion was less intense.

Toothless took this as his que to continue. " **the reason your blast was less powerful is because the first part we talked about: the one to increase fire power was not activated; Activate this now and try again**."

Before Hiccup tried to make the blast he decided to poke fun at Toothless. "that's a lot of science that you know there."

Toothless reciprocated " **yes. Not bad for a '** _ **stupid reptile**_ **' eh?"**

Hiccup gave a small laugh he realised his Dragon friend had humorously used his own words against him. He then tried to implement the skills that his dragon had taught him. He now created his own blast again and released it, after having activated the part the dragon had told him. He was in awe as the blast blazed off before impacting the cove walls with a powerful explosion!

Toothless watched proudly as his student's work payed off, He decided to leave the lesson there considering it was sadly time for hiccup to go. But before he let Hiccup know it was time to leave he decided to give him a teaser.

" **that's all for today but with learning, practice, and devotion you can learn how to do more with fire, like how you learn how to do more with wings. I'll just give you an example where I use the non-reactive liquid to change how my shot behaves**." Toothless formed the liquid and pushed it into his mouth. It didn't taste nice but the trick he was going to pull off was worth it.

" **so, by coating either my tongue or roof of my mouth with the liquid I can change the shot direction. Here is an example with my tongue on the right of my mouth**." Toothless prepared the blast before shooting it. Hiccup watched in amazement as the shot curved right as it travelled through the air.

Toothless had to interrupt the gawking Hiccup. " **sadly, Hiccup it is time for you to go to your village"** (specifically not referring to it as home because it miffed Toothless) Hiccup nodded in sad understanding and started firing up his DFP nozzles. (now stronger because of liquid 2, the one that increased fire power) Then he raced off into the night. As Hiccup ran off Toothless took to the air, determined to make sure Hiccup stayed safe with his dangerous secret.

Hiccup streaked through the dark forest that surrounded Berk, now even faster with the stronger force of his DFP nozzles. This allowed Hiccup to reflect on the amazing feeling of speed while running. His dragon friend Toothless had shown him this and the freedom of flight and he was thankful for both. Sure, it was a taboo relationship that no one on berk had to know but Hiccup was sure that if he kept this secret then it would be the best thing he had ever done.

Hiccup reached his house. He quietened down his DFP nozzles until he turned them off when he was next to his house, He used his wings to keep his footsteps light while running. Eventually he reached the door. He put away his wings and put on his tunic again. Stepping through the door Stoick was thankfully, asleep. He snuck upstairs and was about to enter his room when he realised there was a note attached to the door, worryingly with a dagger. He read it carefully

" _You were away this time and we couldn't find you. But soon we will find you and we'll give you the pain you deserve._

 _From: The real dragon fighters"_

Hiccup gasped at this violent affront from the other trainees. Tomorrow he knew that he would have to get to Gobber before the teens got to him. While he was with Gobber the teens wouldn't be able to harm him, if not then he was in for a _world_ of pain.

However, first he remembered to do the modifications to his shirt. After reaching the forge without anyone noticing (thank god) He quickly added some metal functions to his shirt. He tried to modify his shirt, so that he could still use DFP without taking off his shirt. Also, he added some slits to the back for his wings. He hoped that he could use these modifications to outrun the teens who were set on harming him. All he had to do was make sure they didn't see him using the abilities.

He set off for the dragon ring at a slow pace. He tried to make sure he wasn't ambushed. His mind was on high alert and both his DFP nozzles and his wings were itching to come out on a second's notice. He had to calm himself though, although using these abilities would make it easy to escape he had to remember the secrecy of his abilities.

He came into sight of the dragon ring. Thankfully none of the teens were in sight but worryingly neither was Gobber. He stepped forward bravely, assuring himself that the teens were probably back in the village searching for him.

Suddenly teens started appearing from the foliage, all looking extremely angry. Hiccup tried to get across the bridge, but the twins had already blocked that route. The teens advanced forwards, eventually getting Hiccup cornered onto a tree. The teens were in striking range and angry.

Toothless had an idea

As Hiccup prepared for the hit, mind screaming to use DFP or wings to get him out of the situation, everybody at the scene suddenly heard a good ol' familiar whistle.

"night fury! get down!" screamed Snotlout as he started to panic.

The whistle got higher and higher pitched and eventually the short sound of a plasma blast before the teens were sent somersaulting through the air. Hiccup quickly stood up and activated his dragon parts. As the teens recovered Hiccup was nowhere to be seen.

The teens all looked around in confusion. Then they had to speculate where he had gone, some said that he got obliterated in the blast (but it couldn't have been because he was further from the blast than they were). Others said that he had simply run off while they were distracted.

Eventually all agreeing with the latter explanation the teens ran off in different directions into the forest to find Hiccup.

Hiccup cruised overhead as the confused teens came up with the thought that he had disappeared into the forest. Having heard their plans with his enhanced hearing he felt relieved before preparing to glide down to the ring. Before he descended he thanked Toothless for getting him out of the violent situation.

"no problem Hiccup, it was my pleasure" as Toothless kindly accepted his thanks

He landed behind the ring, out of sight of the teens at the forest. From there he came around to the entrance and prepared to meet Gobber. Luckily Gobber came before the rest of the teens arrived. The teens were confused and angry to see him but when they saw Gobber they knew he was safe from their harm. They all swore vengeance on this runt that had eluded them. Before they did that though they had to go through dragon training.

Dragon training began and while the teens were still angry with Hiccup they decided to home their sights on the dragon today.

Gobber was seen next to a different cage. "now you shall meet the terrible terror" he bent down and unlatched a smaller door that made up the larger. A tiny dragon stumbled out into the open, seemingly ready to fight. Tuffnut started to laugh at the tiny dragon

"hey that things smaller than my- "before the dragon immediately pounced on him, bit him, then hopped off while he started cradling his hurt nose.

As the teens looked around for the small dragon, Hiccup gave a small whisper to him "hey little guy come over here"

The terror could be seen stopping and looking over at him " **and why would I come over there human?** "

Hiccup replied, "because I can give you food and help you become a better fighter."

Initially scared by the human telling him to come closer, his curiosity and hunger pulled him closer. As he took cover in some miscellaneous items near Hiccup he gave a small question. " **and how will you make me a better fighter, scrawny human?** "

Hiccup was slightly miffed at the description of himself by the equally slender dragon but gently grabbed the dragon before rolling over the dragon onto his back. The dragon tried to get away from the unwelcome touch but stopped when he saw scales grow on his arms to shield against the small dragon's claws.

Awed the dragon stopped struggling. Hiccup mused on the dragon's questions before giving him an answer.

"firstly: My name is _Hiccup_ not scrawny human, second: well this and this" he replied as he gave a quick Jab to two parts of the dragon's chest. The dragon was shocked by the sudden action but was confused when the attacks just stopped there.

" **what did you try to do human? Tickle me?"** the small dragon said with a little chuckle at the helpless attack of the human.

"no such thing. I was just trying a trick that my dragon friend Toothless taught me. Now try you're fire and you'll see" Hiccup responded with enthusiasm

The terrible terror once again stumbled into the middle of the arena with a bit of confusion at Hiccup's words. Suddenly one of the teens found him

"hey guys! The terror is over here" Fishlegs shouted, happy with his find.

They all watched as the dragon made a hissing noise, signalling it was about to fire.

"aww. Is the little dragon going to shoot his little fireball at us?" snotlout said with fake affection.

The little dragon was annoyed by this teasing. Suddenly sure of Hiccup's words he continued to fire his blast.

The teens were shocked as a shot streaked by their heads unbelievingly quickly and ignited with a monstrous explosion at the other end (even Gobber was immensely surprised). The small dragon was happy with how his shot had improved from the slow and weak shot it had once been. With a small bit of mental effort and satisfaction that these new parts had been activated he gave a sly smile to the teens. The teens took one look at his evil gaze and ran.

Gobber hung his head in shame as the small dragon managed to humiliate some of the strongest warriors in Berk. The most courageous one was Astrid who advanced with a shield ready, the dragon just looked smugly at her before blasting the shield. Both shield and Astrid hit the back wall of the arena, Astrid now unconscious.

Once the small dragon had thought this was enough payback against the whimpering teens and the now-barely-awoken Astrid he pompously paraded his small self back to the cage. He also gave a quick roar to Hiccup to explain things

"Thank you Hiccup that helped a lot! Also, my name is Speedburn since I forgot to tell you earlier."

As the teens silently watched him go back to the cage where Gobber put the latch back on they made a shocking realisation.

The boy whom they so hated had stayed near the terror for the entire match while it was giving fire. This meant that he was more courageous than most of them (and arguably more than Astrid) since even though he had not attacked the dragon he hadn't fled, like the rest, either. This made the teens even _more_ furious at the boy who had now humiliated them in front of an elder (Gobber).

The teens watched as Hiccup ran back to the forest. They then became angry and decided to run after him.

Hiccup noticed that the teens, still angry with him, were chasing him to try and hurt him again. He decided to stop running and finally confront them. He sat down and waited.

Astrid reached him first and, because of the words of the others that he had helped her get defeated, Threw her axe at him angrily. Before she could process the perhaps fatal ramifications of her actions she was surprised as hiccup casually used one hand to _catch it in the air_. He turned to Shocked Astrid and the rest of the teens.

"so, you found me. Come here to fight me? I hope not, you do not understand who you're up against." Hiccup said as he turned to the teens.

The teens were shocked that Hiccup both had Astrid's axe and wanted to fight them. The former was worrying, and the latter was completely unordinary for this scrawny teen. Hiccup then decided he could fight them unarmed and dropped the axe. Now the teens were completely confused at the ludicrous behaviour. Recovering, they decided to fight. (all except Fishlegs who avoided this interaction, he did not hold anything special against Hiccup)

Astrid came in first as usual, racing to pick up her axe again, snotlout raced in with his hammer bared while the twins slowly advanced with their spears. Hiccup merely waited as they came closer. Astrid picked up her axe and came in with all the strength of a fierce shield maiden.

Hiccup merely looked at her with boredom before gripping the _blade_ of her axe. (the protective scales now covering his hands were out of her view.) He then easily wrenched the axe out of her grasp and repeated dropping the axe again, now behind him. He then gave a quick kick to her stomach to wind her.

As Astrid was temporarily out of the fight, Snotlout came in with his hammer swinging. Hiccup sidestepped the charge and tripped snotlout up. Before Snotlout could recover Hiccup picked up the hammer again and chucked it through the woods.

This gesture surprised Snotlout as not only was his hammer probably lost forever he had just seen _Hiccup_ both lift and throw the hammer easily. Beforehand Hiccup could hardly do the first action and not the second. Snotlout started to run off as the image of a Hiccup possessed by a demon ran through his mind.

Only the twins were fighting fit against Hiccup, they believed that their superior numbers against the now battle fatigued Hiccup would make them win. They were surprised when the barely tired Hiccup marched up and prepared to fight them. Now unsure they decided (unwisely) to press the final attack.

Hiccup simply walked up to them. He then disarmed Tuffnut and used the shaft of the spear to knock both twins out simultaneously. He then turned to leave. Before he left he found Astrid's axe again and heaved it over his shoulder as a spoil of his final victory over these bullies.

Astrid watched him go with her axe, she was in no shape to move after him and take her axe back. especially now that he had mysteriously been made stronger, even beyond the realms of puberty kicking in. As she reflected on her own defeated fate she suddenly remembered one part of the blessings at birth: whoever defeated her became her husband. Although shocking at first it became inevitable: he had evidence, and everyone knew both the blessings of her birth and how attached she was to that axe (she would never let someone take it away out of her sight.)

She sighed and embraced what was to happen next, husband to Hiccup. But, she reminded herself, it was better than being married to the arrogant Snotlout. Now she had to be nice to her husband to be.

A/N

One vote for an extra pairing won the poll, I know it's very quick time limit for a survey, but my story is currently updating fast.

I know that Astrid's realisation is a bit awkward at the end. Perhaps I'll renovate that later.

PM's and reviews please! I currently have 3 people (with accounts) who gave me reviews that helped and I was able to reply to them and take on board their feedback. One of them has kept in regular correspondence since his review and is now my amazing artist so thank you nightfuryfanfic!


	6. 6:Toothless meets the family

**Hiccup gone half fury**

 **A/N**

 **This chapter has been lengthened. Also, I added more detail and perspective to the first part, so it is slower than it was before.**

 **Chapter 6: Toothless meets the family.**

Astrid got up and prepared to follow Hiccup. Her fury at the stealing of her possessions both echoed in her mind and echoed through the forest. She wanted to get her axe back before Hiccup was seen with her favourite weapon in his possession. She knew that the elders would, at first, think she was dead, but when they saw she was still alive they would immediately know that she had been beaten in combat.

If she got her axe before the elders saw it then she would be safe from marriage and the humiliation that came with her horrible defeat. This became her beacon that drove her forwards towards the Hiccup that had caused her such great despair.

She struggled to catch up to him as he navigated the thick undergrowth with ease, her panicked steps only aided her unusual clumsiness as she tripped on every root, Fern, and stone. She tried to relax herself, her panic was only getting in the way of her goal. She thought again of the consequences of marrying Hiccup and why she needed to avoid it, this again kept her chasing after the teen who had taken her favourite axe.

Her devotion slowly reduced the distance to her target. Every meter closer was excruciatingly slow but reinvigorated her chase. She kept her eyes on her current mortal enemy while trying in her peripherals to dodge the obstacles in her way. As the plains of the village came into view Astrid was more focused than ever before on reclaiming that damned axe.

As the two teens cleared the forest into the clearing of the village Astrid gave all she had in one last effort to reclaim her axe. She quickly tried to knock hiccup over to distract him while she took back her axe, she was surprised when hiccup didn't fall over as easily as she thought, being the weakling, he was. The only benefit from her plan was that since Hiccup was so surprised by her sudden attack that he weakened his grip on her axe, allowing her to take it out of his strong grip.

Astrid was not prepared for the _violent_ look of anger as Hiccup turned around to meet his attacker, she gasped as he saw his pupils turning into slits and realised then she was in big trouble.

The two warriors warily looked into the eyes of the other. Astrid started a slow swing of her axe to reassure herself she could contend with the man turned berserker in front of her. His eyes glowed brightly, something she found extremely unsettling as she nervously waited for his next move.

Hiccup was beside himself 'how dare she attack me from behind! I won in an honest battle and she still decides she needs to beat me further. I will make her pay!' He turned around and gave a supercharged blow to her shoulder, Astrid was surprised by the force, she tried to give resistance and a war cry started from her lips, just as it had begun the war cry was silenced as a second punch from Hiccup floored her.

As she lay on the ground recovering from the suddenness of her defeat, again, she saw with shock there were spectators to this duel both were looking on with shock as Hiccup the useless easily broke Astrid's defence with an anger that they had never thought Hiccup was capable of. Hiccup didn't notice these spectators, too focused on the horrible girl in front of him.

He picked up the axe again, brandished it with fury and he gave a bellowed warning at the grounded teenager, astounding even himself.

"Don't you even DARE attacking me like that again. You fought me while my back is turned! You are lucky that I don't want to seriously harm you, yet. Next time you do something like this I will NOT be as lenient" There was a gasp of surprise from the two Viking's watching and Hiccup froze. He turned around to see who had been watching the show of violence from him and was very worried when he saw Gobber and Stoick. His axe dropped from his now nervous fingers.

Gobber started first with the uncomfortable news "Um, Hiccup? You do know what happens to the first Viking to defeat Astrid? They kind of get, you know, engaged."

Hiccup instantly realised he had forgotten all about the blessings given to Astrid at birth, In the typical style of a shield maiden she would be married to the first person who could defeat her. (after a certain age of course, but Astrid had already surpassed that age) He then realised that he was now, unknowingly, betrothed to his opponent. Astrid just bowed her head in defeat, the event which she had so desperately tried to avoid had come along.

Surprisingly for Astrid Hiccup did not react with smug pleasure as she thought he would have. Instead Hiccup looked quite saddened as he responded to Gobber in a sorrowful and hateful tone

"is there any way to avoid this? some loophole or something else? I can't be married to Astrid, I'm too weak and I'm not the man she deserves. Also, I would rather just stay with my friend… oh dear I said that last bit aloud didn't I?"

Astrid was thinking carefully about his rejection to marriage, He said he was too weak and that was a lie but the fact that he turns down marriage in the first place was both happy and confusing for her. Yes, she wanted to stay a free spirit, unconstricted by marriage for as long as possible but was also confused and hurt at the fact that the only Viking that could now accept her as wife had wholeheartedly refused the thought of togetherness.

He may have gone through a fight with her and she could still see the rage in his eyes, but this instantaneous rejection was far too quick even for that. She also started idly thinking that perhaps Hiccup didn't fancy her at all, her looks and all. This made her slightly saddened at the destruction of her pride although she didn't pay much attention to the source of her sadness. Her careful thinking was interrupted by Stoick voicing his thoughts at the latter part of Hiccup's explanation

Gobber and Stoick were both surprised at his rejection of his marriage. They had debilitated amongst themselves at the mead hall that any teen would be lucky to marry Astrid, pride of the village fighting trainee's. They were also surprised at the accidental mention of this friend Hiccup had mentioned.

Stoick was curious "who is this friend that you mention Hiccup? And don't lie we don't take liking to liars."

Hiccup sighed at his mistake, Astrid was still both hopeful at the fact that Hiccup didn't want to marry her either and curious at his mentioned friend. "Well my friend is… someone who you wouldn't understand." Hiccup gave his vague explanation.

Stoick was a little irritated at this lack of information "and who is this friend? An outcast? You would nev- "he was cut off by Hiccup

Hiccup calmly explained "he isn't an outcast, dad"

Stoick was perplexed "Who is this person then?"

Hiccup went on at a wince, having to explain this awkward friendship was not something that he wanted to explain at all. He had to try though, his father would most definitely berate him for this for the rest of his life if he didn't explain. "he's a dragon dad."

Now all three Vikings surrounding Hiccup were confused. Astrid was unconsciously even sadder at the fact that having a dragon for a friend was better than being married to her, Gobber was confused that the teen that had managed to do best out of dragon training (hadn't backed down and hadn't been hurt) would suddenly be revealed to like a dragon. Stoick eventually took the opportunity to continue. "a DRAGON? What kind of Loki are you planning to confuse us when you say _this,_ my son?"

Hiccup continued his harrowing explanation, "I plan no Loki for you, my friend is actually a dragon, in fact," he stopped as he prepared to shout out into the heavens "TOOTHLESS!"

The adults laughed at the thought of this child fooling them into thinking he had a dragon for a friend. A dragon named _Toothless_ to be exact. Astrid was more Jealous as she heard the dragon's strange name 'and this dragon is still better for him than me?!' They were all silenced as they heard a mounting whistle coming from the dusk-orange sky.

Stoick was in shock as the signature attack sound of a night fury resonated through the air: "night fury! get down!" Stoick shouted as he, Gobber and Astrid made sure they were flat against the ground. They were confused as they heard buffeting wing beats and then a landing.

Stoick looked up at the _night fury_ that had just arrived with hate. The night fury returned his glare with the same distrust. Stoick prepared to charge but Hiccup stopped him with a strong hold.

Stoick was overcome with irritation as his _son_ prevented him from engaging this dragon. "Hiccup! Stand out of the way so I can kill this devil!"

Toothless growled at this provocation and Hiccup stiffened "I will not let you kill Toothless, Toothless is my friend." Again, all the other Vikings were in shock as Hiccup once again announced his friendship to the beast. Astrid's anger was now mixed with the jealousy of being rejected over the most _evil_ of all dragon species

Hiccup continued "you have seen my friend and probably want both of us dead now. But before we go," he said while turning to Astrid "Astrid, you and the other teens should know this, YOU caused this. I had no friends, only bullies. But a dragon accepted me, A DRAGON. ACCEPTED. ME. Gave me friendship and gave me a gift. Now remember this before you mark me and my faithful dragon here a traitor. You caused me to befriend a dragon because he was better than ALL of you." Astrid and the others were left reeling as hiccup gave his accusation, especially since it was all true. Before they had time to recuperate Hiccup had grown wings and blasted off into the air above Berk. Toothless followed close behind.

Astrid sat in the aftermath of this shocking event. (She ignored Stoicks suspicious gaze at her after he had heard about their bullying of his son). She had time to think and a point driven home to think on. It had taken a boy befriending a dragon to realise her mistake in picking on the runt of the village, she was already saddened that it needed to come to this before she changed her mind.

Astrid suddenly had a plan to make up for her bad actions. Although it would've sounded crazy to her rational mind her rational mind wasn't in charge. The only mind at work here was the emotional one, and the emotional one was truly shocked at her own behaviour. With this her thoughts told her to apologise to Hiccup.

Hiccup and Toothless flew over to the dragon ring to finish the Job they had started. They were already Outcasts, even now both flew on the wings of the Viking's most hated enemy, and so they had wanted to finish off their betrayal. They had wanted to change Berk, but they sensed now was not the time. With this thought in mind they went to the dragon ring to finally release all the dragons.

They got there, Hiccup changed back to human form, and went in and started breaking the locks of the cages. The dragons held captive regarded the boy returning with interest. When the gates of their enclosures were opened they noticed two strange things. Stormfly announced these oddities "Hiccup? Where is the food and why is there a night fury next to you?"

Hiccup responded in a serious tone

"Today isn't about food"

a short gasp of indignation from the dragons before he continued

"today is about setting you free from these vile enclosures once and for all. Also, the night fury near me is my friend Toothless."

The dragon's all celebrated at the thought of them leaving the enclosure and welcomed Toothless as well.

They were about to leave the ring when Astrid appeared at the gate. The dragon's growled warningly and hiccup joined them. he asked Astrid with his residual anger apparent

"what are you doing here? Trying to kill me again after I revealed your bullying to the elders? Because I will _not_ tolerate you trying to kill me or my 'draconic' friends."

Astrid was hit with the realisation that she had to explain her real motives quickly before an untimely injury was caused.

"I'm here to say sorry. You have been bullied by us for far too long. It took the shock of seeing you with a dragon friend to make up for the lack of human ones for me to realise."

Hiccup replied with a look that implied 'was it seriously _that_ hard to see?' before he responded

"if you were really sorry you'd join me as I leave this island. I think Stormfly would be happy to carry you, provided you don't attack her." He emphasized that last part.

Astrid was surprised Hiccup trusted her enough for her to join him. She responded, "Thank you _husband_ I'd be happy to, if it showed you I am truly sorry." She had meant the emphasis to state her goodwill towards Hiccup but was worried when he did not respond in kind.

Hiccup was irritated at the reference to the marriage statement from earlier placed in the middle of an otherwise sincere response

"Also, none of that husband stuff. The fight should never have happened, and I am truly not the right person to be your husband"

Astrid was surprised at herself when she responded to that statement by _liking him more_. She realised she had never thought about how kind and modest Hiccup really was while she tormented him. She then realised something strange and gave a small smile to an indignant Hiccup when she had a small, simple thought 'maybe he is the right man for me'.

Hiccup heard a voice from Stormfly

"Hiccup, I do not want that violent Viking girl on my back, for all I know she would kill me instantly"

Hiccup tried to reassure Stormfly that she had turned away from her old dragon fighting ways to be forgiven for her mistreatment of himself. She still bluntly refused to carry her on her back.

He addressed the other dragons as to whether they wanted to carry the girl, as he very much doubted the other Vikings would forgive the girl after knowing she had talked to a traitor. Sadly, for him none of the other dragons stepped forward to carry her.

He sighed as he realised the only option left was allowing this girl onto his back. He turned to Astrid and addressed her

"sorry to say this Astrid but none of the dragons here are willing to let you ride them,"

Astrid was a bit confused as she saw no way for her to continue, for her to escape the island as a part of the traitor's group. In her mind there was a part of her that wanted to stay, however she still had many years of bad acts to redeem herself from and if she stayed behind she would probably be married to someone else in the village, probably Snotlout. As she shuddered from the last though she heard Hiccup continuing.

"because of this I will have to let you ride me."

Astrid was clearly confused when he said that she would ride him, what did he mean by that? He couldn't fly, could he?

"and if you wonder I would do that then …"

he trailed off as he shifted into his fury form. She gasped at the sudden transformation 'he both has a dragon friend and is a dragon himself? What kind of Loki is this?' She realised that Toothless and Hiccup now looked basically the same, with Hiccup being just slightly smaller than the full night fury.

As she struggled to interpret the confusing scene in front of her Hiccup indicated for her to come closer. With her not responding he decided to give her vocal encouragement. After a quick change of his vocal cords into human ones he gave his instructions.

"Come over here and get on! We don't have long before the Village searches for us here."

She just stayed locked in position, even more shocked that now Hiccup was a dragon that could _talk_. Hiccup sighed before walking over to the frozen girl and flipped her onto his back using his mouth. Before she could voice her terror at the sudden movement the dragons had started to leave.

After waiting for his turn to leave Hiccup eagerly launched off into the air. He could hear the panic of his passenger at the sudden acceleration but ignored it as he concentrated on flying. The group flew off Berk, not towards the dragon's nest but in a new direction to discover new islands.

After clearing the outer threshold of Berk Hiccup decided to talk to his passenger.

"now that we are clear of Berk I can give you more explanation."

Astrid raced to cobble together a question

"how are you a dragon?"

Hiccup affirmed a nod of understanding

"Like I said earlier, Toothless gave me a gift. It was a bit of dragon magic, but I don't understand how it works yet. However, this gave me the ability to change any body part into that of a dragon."

She was astonished that dragons had magic, magic seemed an art too mystical for such a violent beast to muster. She continued.

"what is your favourite part of being a dragon? I never heard a dragon's opinion of how it felt being the most feared creature of Viking's everywhere"

Hiccup laughed at the unique comparison of him with a feared beast. He gave her his joyful answer.

"I don't think there is one thing above all others. I think there are many things to consider, you've got flight and dragon fire and enhanced senses, also I haven't shown you one of the other perks of being a night fury…"

He waited for his bait to take hold. She took it.

"and what is this perk."

He smiled at the interesting implications of her curiosity.

"well, I can show you, hold on!"

After he could feel the instinctive increase of her grip on his ears he got ready to give her his surprise. He fired up his DFP nozzles and delighted at the exhilarating increase of speed, they quickly passed the other dragons. At first Astrid was scared at the sudden acceleration but she soon learned to lose her sense of fear and enjoy the exhilarating sensation of _speed._ Hiccup noticed her Joy and smiled warmly, He had managed to change one bloodthirsty Viking.

And for now, that's all he needed.


	7. 7: dragon rider island

**Half dragon Hiccup**

 **A/N,**

 **only a few new faces in the reviews and PM.**

 **Is this chapter too fast?**

 **Nightfuryfanfic! I managed to solve the problem of oxygen supply!**

 **I keep on forgetting to use bold for dragon speech, so it shall be left as normal until maybe I can fix it later.**

 **thank you all for reading this far.**

 **Chapter 8: rider Island.**

After a long time, night, and day. cruising over the water, Hiccup was starting to get tired,

"Can I give Astrid to one of you? I'm slightly exhausted"

To his surprise He got a reply from Stormfly, one of the first to reject the thought of being ridden by Astrid.

"I can carry her if you're tired, she doesn't seem to want to hurt you, so I think she's alright for me to carry."

Hiccup thanked Stormfly gently and then prepared to switch his rider over to her. He got into a position behind Stormfly and glided towards her until it was close enough for Astrid to switch. Hiccup encouraged her.

"Come on Astrid, I can't carry you any further and Stormfly agreed to carry you."

Thankfully understanding what to do Astrid lowered herself carefully onto Stormfly' s neck. Stormfly was prepared for struggling but was happily surprised when she felt Astrid scratching her neck. Stormfly turned to Hiccup.

"She is nice for a Viking, isn't she?"

Hiccup was glad that Astrid adjusted so well.

"I think it's because she already accepted what's happening, good on her."

Hiccup felt a bit weird being appreciative of the girl, but it was very brave of her to be so accepting of riding on her people's worst enemy"

Astrid was most definitely panicking on the inside, she was thousands of feet in the air, riding a dragon that she had fought before in the ring and probably still held a grudge against her. The only reason she was acting so calm was because she was afraid that she'd lose her balance and fall to her death. She nervously scratched the side of the dragon's neck 'good dragon, don't drop me dragon…' while she concentrated on staying on.

After a minute of Astrid being tense on Stormfly she began to relax again. In all her panic she had forgot to acknowledge the beauty of being thousands of feet in the air, clear blue skies, cool wind against her face and most importantly freedom from the ground. As she revelled in this welcome feeling she decided to take it slightly further.

"come on you beautiful (Astrid was trying to flatter it) dragon, can you do some tricks?"

Stormfly excitedly called for Hiccup

"hey Hiccup! The girl asked me for some tricks!"

Hiccup just smirked

"show her what you've got, girl!"

After a little twinge of mock disappointment of the flirting, Stormfly proceeded into her tricks. She could feel the girl's excitement as she performed her aerobatics, every change in direction caused her to yelp in surprise. After a rewarding showcase Stormfly settled back into normal flight.

Astrid was in awe at the agility of the dragon she was riding. She was having the time of her life discovering just how majestic the beasts of her nightmares really were. She showed this to Stormfly with energetic affection. Stormfly happily accepted the extra attention with a smile and a croon.

As the dragon's continued their cruising, an Island appeared on their right, it had steep cliffs and wide grasslands on top, with a little forest at the highest points. The dragons dropped out of their cruise and circled the Island, looking for other inhabitants. Finding nothing else living on the island they came in for a soft landing.

As the others recovered from their long flight Astrid decided to explore the island more. She eventually discovered a few small caves after a long time searching. Confusingly she found that the island did not have enough wood to make a good shelter. She voiced her discovery to Hiccup.

Hiccup considered this once he had shifted to human form. He eventually came up with a solution and proceeded with her to the nearest cave, he gestured the small interior of the cave

"this will be our shelter."

Astrid snorted at how dumb his explanation sounded

"and how will you fit all the dragons in here? There's barely enough room for one."

Hiccup looked back at her smugly.

"it just needs some interior redesigning."

Astrid looked at Hiccup in confusion until she saw the light blue glow emanating from his mouth. He kept his gaze aimed at the back of the cave until his shot blew that section apart. He looked at his handiwork with satisfaction.

"a few more shots like that, a bit of smoothing and it's perfect for us."

Astrid just sat down out of the blast zone as she waited for the work to be completed on her new home.

After a whole afternoon of work, blasting more space in the cave, Hiccup sending the other dragons off for supplies Hiccup and Astrid were left with nothing to do until the other dragons came back.

Astrid nervously asked what was going to happen to prepare for the oncoming night. Hiccup smiled at this and got to work constructing some beds. They only had wood from the scarce forests and seaweed from the shore, but Hiccup put together two ramshackle beds for the night. They smelt strongly of the sea but in a while they would lose that odour. Astrid asked how they would stay warm at night, but Hiccup quickly answered that one with a stream of fire at the mouth of the cave to keep the inside warm, he also used the rubble to construct temporary windbreaks.

After a day of preparation, they began to sleep.

After getting up in the morning after they first caught their meal of fish (caught by hiccup with his hands while hovering above the water). They then planned their entertainment until the dragons returned with more supplies. Eventually they ended up near the cliffside of the island answering more of Astrid's questions.

"do they have names? I heard you talk to them, but you never really mention what their names are."

Hiccup explained "well… the Nadder is Stormfly, the Gronkle is called Meatlug, the Zippleback's heads are called Barf and Belch and the terrible terror (who had ridden on Meatlug) is called Speedburn."

Processing their names Astrid filed them away and prepared for her next question.

"have you forgiven me for what I did?"

Hiccup laughed a great deal. Astrid was confused but Hiccup explained.

"I forgave you the moment you decided to go with us on our escape."

Astrid was both shocked and happy to know how quickly she had been forgiven for the many years of bullying she had committed against this cheerful teen. One last question entered her mind.

"what do you plan to do to change the rest of the Viking's"

Hiccup replied, "I think I'll just try to stop the dragon raids and try to talk to Stoick after each one."

Astrid replied with confusion

"How are you going to prevent the raid"

Hiccup gave a cheeky smile

"with firepower I guess, I think I can get the dragons scared."

Astrid sighed, it was a plan, but it would take a lot of effort to convince the rest of the Viking's to cease their war. They waited in the overcast weather for the dragons to come back.

When the dragons came back they carried with them a lot of supplies. Astrid and Hiccup met the tired dragons and helped them to carry the supplies back to their base, once back they made adjustments. The floor was covered in furs to help keep the dragons warm, the entrance was covered with a curtain and the human's beds were remade with leather stretched over the wooden frame to remove the unpleasant seaweed. After the base was ready the dragons started to settle down for a rest. All except for Stormfly

Astrid heard the conversation between Hiccup and Stormfly. Although she could not hear exactly what was being said she could see a small amount of surprise registering on Hiccup's face. He faced her to deliver the message.

"for some reason Stormfly trusts you enough to give you the same kind of gift as Toothless gave me. You should be thankful, it is an advanced form of dragon magic and they only give it to those they trust. I'm also surprised, I thought she was still suspicious"

After a bit of annoyance that Hiccup couldn't see her as trustworthy she suddenly noticed the dramatic consequences of what he just said, although she was a bit wary of this change Hiccup reassured her.

"don't worry, it only allows you to change into a dragon and does nothing else negative to your body. It's practically perfect, for magic."

Having accepted the offer by Stormfly after Hiccup's calming words she prepared herself. She could see Stormfly concentrate on an internal feeling for a while.

After a minute Stormfly stopped her concentration and blew a cloud of dark orange onto her skin. Like on Hiccup her skin steadily absorbed the gas and she felt a small surge of energy.

After the change was done she was left confused as she had expected a more dramatic (and probably painful) change. However, Hiccup's smile told her the process was complete.

Hiccup surveyed the dragon and human as the magical process occurred. It was weird for him to see the process that had happened to him in third person and done by a different species of dragons. After a short period of hyperactivity, she looked in Hiccup's eyes for assurance, Hiccup noticed this and gave her a warm smile. She had done it.

Hiccup was curious at what had happened to her.

"think of growing a tail."

Astrid was slightly confused at this bizarre statement but having taken into account her change she did it anyway. She was surprised to feel A tail snaking out from between her shirt and her skirt. She looked back and saw the spiny tail of a Nadder behind her. She looked at the Nadder and saw she was curiously watching her reaction.

After a moment studying her new limb she put it away and she gave Hiccup a wide grin for helping her accept this amazing change. She knew it was strange but being able to stay completely human helped ease her in to her new abilities.

Astrid turned to Stormfly and Hiccup.

"I _love_ it!"

They smiled back at her.

She experimented with different limbs while Hiccup talked to her. She was amazed at the new abilities she had, especially with the ability to shoot spines. It had taken a while until she was comfortable with what each part did, and Hiccup had made sure she remembered that she could change back whenever she wished. She was appreciative of the fact that Hiccup continually tried to calm her down as she went through this strange process. It helped her appreciate the side she never knew about the boy and made her comfortable in this strange place

After an eventful time for Astrid she went to bed along with Hiccup and Stormfly. All of them were prepared for an interesting day tomorrow but none more so than Astrid.

In the morning Hiccup and Astrid woke before the other dragons. Determined to see what she could do she followed Hiccup out of the cove and into the warm dawn light. Hiccup looked up at the orange skies and smiled. Astrid was confused.

"why are you smiling Hiccup?"

Hiccup answered Astrid

"because this colour makes me think of the first lesson I should do with you"

Again, Astrid was confused but Hiccup continued.

"this orange reminds me of dragon fire."

Astrid gasped, the thought of learning such a destructive art scared her a little even when she was a shield maiden. The thought of harnessing a dragon's destructive potential was an alien concept to her mind where stopping the destructive potential of a dragon was key. She gulped down her fear to prepare for the lesson.

Hiccup then gave a short jab to Astrid's lower chest, she was both surprised and angry at this sudden show of aggression. Hiccup gave her a reassuring look.

"don't worry, that's part of the process. Now can you feel a strange feeling in your chest?"

Astrid was questioning but concentrated on her chest. Suddenly she realised that she felt liquid pool in an organ which wasn't her lungs. Hiccup answered her non-verbal confusion.

"what you feel is your dragon fire chamber. This is where the fire is made. During your transformation your dragon fire chamber replaced part of your lungs. But don't worry, your remaining lungs are more efficient, so you should notice no difference. Now concentrate on this organ and draw out the gas inside of it then breath on it when it's in your mouth."

She somehow managed to follow his long set of instructions and started breathing her superheated flame. Like on Hiccup her flame did not travel far however her flame was a stream of fire instead of a pulse, also Hiccup could see small gills opening on the side of her neck. This, he theorised, was what provided the oxygen to provide the reaction for a long stream. He wasn't sure what the chemical used in her fire was, but it burned fiercely and released a lot of heat. After a time had passed Astrid stopped her stream, not because the flame was out of oxygen (because of the gills), but because Astrid had run out of breath in her normal lungs. So, she instinctively closed her gills and stopped the flow of fuel.

Hiccup was amazed at this show of flame by another type of shifter and was glad to now know why he could sustain a long stream, however she looked surprised but slightly disappointed with her fire, it didn't travel very far. Hiccup noticed this and proceeded to the next part of his tutelage.

"As you've seen you can make a fire stream. Currently it is powerful but doesn't travel very far. To make it travel further press here," hiccup pressed his own chest "on yourself and your next fire will travel further"

Astrid did as he asked and gave a short jab to the part of the chest he had showed. Now she felt liquid build up again in her chamber again. Hiccup noticed she had finished doing what he showed.

"now try again."

Astrid performed her fire stream again, this time it went far but did not burn as fiercely. Hiccup took his cue and continued.

"now you have seen what these parts of your firing chamber do. Now concentrate on them until you feel that they are active,"

Astrid, not wanting to break the cycle of her learning this amazing skill, did as he asked until she felt an odd feeling which she somehow knew meant that these parts were active.

She tried again without waiting for him to say so and was amazed at the perfection her fire now had. It still felt weird to be able to do what your worst enemy does but as she reminded herself she wasn't going to be forced to use this skill. With that in mind she prepared to have as much fun learning it as she could.

As the two conversed in the aftermath of the lesson (with Hiccup showing off his plasma blasts to Astrid), Stormfly had started listening in on their conversation from over a bump on the island. After a bit of conversation had gone by Stormfly decided to surprise the two.

"You two are such love boats."

Astrid chocked at this unwelcome implication that the two loved each other.

"now where are you, you creep?

Stormfly just giggled.

"that's no way to address the person who gave you your gift!"

Astrid suddenly realised who was talking and was shocked.

"Stormfly! You can talk!?"

Stormfly huffed in annoyance.

"I could speak all the time however Hiccup was the only one who could understand me. Now you can too!"

Astrid suddenly had a realisation of the implications of what Stormfly. She turned to Hiccup.

"is this why she didn't attack you?"

Hiccup nodded. Astrid continued

"did you help her attack me?"

Hiccup froze at the unwelcome realisation Astrid now had

"erm, kind of?"

Astrid got an annoyed look in her eyes and chased after Hiccup

"you will pay for that"

Hiccup took off immediately away from the approaching Astrid, DFP was trailing brightly as he tried to escape from the angry girl. Astrid meanwhile shot spines at Hiccup after shifting a tail. After a while Astrid was tired at the amount of effort it took to aim at Hiccup while he was running. Hiccup came over to the tired Astrid.

"am I forgiven now? After the amount of time you took to use me as target practise?"  
Astrid gave a small smile before launching a spine that cut his shirt open at the shoulder. Hiccup was in complete shock

"why would you do that?! That scared the life out of me!"

Astrid gave another small smile

"now you're forgiven"

Hiccup gave a small sigh as she started to nap from her exhaustion. He wanted to get her back then and there, but he had other things to do. He gave Astrid a wave goodbye, told off Stormfly for giving him away before he set off to repair his shirt.

Astrid was awoken later. By a bucket of water. She looked up at the source and saw hiccup walking away from her with a bucket.

"what was that for?"

Hiccup gave her a disbelief.

"firstly, the fact that you tore my shirt, it's going to take a while to find the materials to repair it. Also, it's time to go so we can all make it to Berk before the raid tomorrow night. We'll go in front to prepare a shelter. After the anti-raid group had been assembled, which consisted of Astrid, Stormfly, Hiccup and Toothless (the other dragons were too tired to help this time).

As Astrid and Stormfly groggily prepared to fly, Toothless and Hiccup in his night fury form both Jumped off the side and sped along the water back to Berk. As she Jealously watched the night furies put their superior speed to good use, being momentarily distracted by twin sonic booms from the distance. Disappointed that the others were already well on their way she mounted Stormfly and took off after them.


	8. 8: stoic against Stoick

Hiccup gone half fury

In Denmark currently so updates are not scheduled regularly. This chapter is mostly to give you this important note while giving you the story, so it is both legal ( rules) and people reading this after my break shouldn't notice the difference in the story.

Chapter 8. stoic against Stoick

Hiccup And toothless both streaked over the water at immense speeds. They were already travelling far over the speed of sound (thanks to DFP) while their blue trails sparkled against the pitch black sea. Soon they were across the water and into the hostile territory of Berk. From here they circled around to the cove and prepared to set up their shelter.

Astrid was still flying on Stormfly as she idly wondered how to make her long journey better. She currently wasn't talking to Stormfly due to how weird the experience was but knew after a while her resolve would fail against boredom. After the mental battle had finally drawn to it's inevitable end Astrid started a conversation with Stormfly.

"So Stormfly, how does flying work? "

Stormfly answered

"you stretch out your wings first."

Astrid did as Stormfly asked, a bit worried that Stormfly wasn't giving her a more detailed explanation before her own first flight.

Stormfly continued

"and the rest you will get the hang of"

She said as she flipped in mid-air. Astrid fell off Stormfly' s back and screamed as she fell towards the sea, her errant wings not doing much to slow her down or stabilise her.

Stormfly entered a dive and appeared next to Astrid. She stayed there for a while before offering her next piece of advice.

"your wings are moving around in random directions. Try straightening them out and you will glide."

Astrid struggled to put Stormfly' s advice into practise as she rapidly fell from the sky. Eventually getting it, she gasped at how close the sea was.

"you cut it close Stormfly! I could have fallen into that water at full speed!"

Stormfly looked at her fearful face.

"I knew you would be able to fly as soon as I told you the right way"

Astrid was annoyed by this.

"and why did you have to tell me how to fly right as I'm about to hit the water? Couldn't we have done that further up?"

Stormfly gave her reason to Astrid with a small tone of victory.

"You chased Hiccup all the way around the Island while firing at him and damaged his only shirt, all for the sake of how Hiccup kept me safe in the ring."

Astrid was shocked that Stormfly had had thoughts of revenge on Astrid. She was annoyed that she would now have to deal with this Nadder and her Affection to Hiccup for keeping her safe in the ring.

Now having done her piece of revenge Stormfly went on with Astrid's instruction on flight, specifically powered flight because she was close to the water.

"Now Astrid, to perform powered flight you need to begin with instructing your mind to go a certain place, this activates your flight reflexes, but I wouldn't worry about that."

Astrid did as she was asked from the accomplished dragon. Her thoughts of anger for the dragon were now overcome with the need to get away from the water that was coming closer. She mentally dictated she would now go up and her wings broke away from their static glide position to start propelling her upwards. Now climbing she decided thanks would have to be given before she went into her anger that Stormfly had given her such a dangerous prank.

"thank you Storm for teaching me how to fly but I am still annoyed that you couldn't just let me fly _without_ pranking me"

Stormfly just laughed at that

"Loki'd"

Astrid was astonished at the knowledge of Viking gods

"how did you know Loki is the god of tricks?"

Stormfly replied

"I learnt a lot about how your society functioned while I was in the ring. I also learnt how to understand Norse, so I knew what you were saying, and I have some thoughts. Firstly, you say some pretty weird things when you go off into battle, mostly screams and grunts and not the Norse that I know.

Astrid was caught out when she realised that Stormfly knew about her war cry.

"it is meant to make us intimidating and boost morale."

Stormfly snorted in disbelief.

"why would a high volume animal noise intimidate us and boost your morale? You sound like high volume sheep sometimes."

Astrid was very displeased to know that the dragon thought her war cry sounded like a sheep's noise. She tried to emphasize her version of the war cry.

"it is used to channel the anger of the great god Odin into our fight. It is a mark of greatness to be able to create a piercing war cry?"

Stormfly was confused, but not in the way Astrid had expected.

"I thought Odin was a great war god, I didn't know you actually channel the anger of a god of sheep while charging into battle."

Astrid was utterly humiliated at this reducing view of the great god Odin but wisely held her tongue for expectation of even more humiliation from this dragon in response. In her silence she quietly wondered when what she perceived as a murderous beast had turned into the smart-ass she now knew.

Sensing that the comedic humiliation of Astrid was over Stormfly flew under Astrid to take the weight of flying off her barely used wings. Astrid appreciated the gesture.

"thanks for that, my wings were starting to get sore."

Stormfly squawked in understanding.

"your welcome. I know that your wings aren't built for flying just yet, so I'll carry you until they recover."

Astrid was surprised by the motherlike behaviour from the same dragon who had insulted her before but welcomed it as a show of affection from her at last.

As night fell Hiccup was busy cutting down trees with his talons. The shelter was coming along nicely with Toothless helping him as he cut down the trees and fashioned them into planks. After a short time, the basic shelter was complete, and it had enough space to house both riders and their dragons. After that Hiccup snuck into the village to gather bedding while toothless took a nap.

Hiccup surveyed the scene of the village at night with his night vision. Seeing no one in his immediate vicinity he trudged through the village to the animal fur storage. After gathering enough for the housing back at the cove he made his way back through the village, avoiding the guards easily as their torches gave them away. Stumbling upon Stoicks house (he wouldn't refer it to his if he didn't live in it) and decided to give him a heads up of their meeting tomorrow. He clawed in his message on the back of the chief's house while Stoick soundly slept through his scratching. After finishing the message on the wall. The inscription read:

'Stoick, this is a message for you from your son and on behalf of Astrid. We have not sided with the dragons although you believe this is so, we have sided with Freyr the god of peace. We do not want to see this war go on but unlike you we also don't want dragons to all die to achieve this peace. We believe in a peace between dragons and Vikings, a concept which is laughable to you. I ask you to meet us in the forest behind the village to talk about peace after we stop the next dragon raids.

Your son and ambassador of peace.

Hiccup.'

Hiccup then gave his talons a rest before sneaking up to Stoicks window to awake Stoick. He shot a small fire blast at the ground in front of the message, not to cause a fire but to smoulder. He then summoned small little bouts of dragon fire to form and react in his mouth. After he had reacted enough dragon fire he blew the scent of burning over to Stoick before flying off to survey his reaction.

Stoick woke up with the smell of burning in the air. He rushed over to his window to see if the dragons had given Berk a surprise attack but noted no sounds of dragons. He then noticed the smouldering earth at the back of his house and went outside to investigate. He came around the house to see if any other shots had hit his house. Finding none he was about to cease his investigation until he saw the back wall of his house now had scratch marks in the form of runes illuminated in the light of the smouldering grass.

After fetching a torch to see the message better he read. He was both angry and surprised to find out Hiccup had done this in the middle of night but was also curious that Hiccup now promoted himself as a patron to Freyr. He read with interest as Hiccup talked about creating a peace without killing dragons.

After reading it through he was angry that Hiccup had decided to confront him like this in the middle of the village but being a chief and used to the parliamentary side that came with it he was interested in his ideas of peace. Coming to a conclusion He decided he would meet Hiccup to discuss peace. He acknowledged it would be much easier if Hiccup showed him he could stop the night attack because then he has Chief Stoicks respect on behalf on his people.

However, he still decided to bring an escort of 30 guards in case this meeting was an attempt to murder him. After all he had become friends with a dragon and might have gotten a cunning personality because of it.

Stoick readied to do his chiefly duties in the morning that would lead to a potentially radical night.

Astrid arrived upon a tired Stormfly during midday. After flying around in a ragged circle, she saw Toothless fire a plasma blast into the air. After she had landed in the cove She barely saw Hiccup going about his chores before resting in the wooden shelter He had built. Stormfly followed soon after and Hiccup and Toothless were baffled at how quickly they had transitioned from flight to sleeping.

Hiccup brushed it off and re checked what he would say to Stoick. This would be his first and possibly the last encounter he would have with him. He affirmed that he knew what to say before checking the ambush points of the forest to remove any guards that Stoick had with him. He knew that guards would make the Chief more connected to his village more likely to at best ignore him and at worst kill him.

Dusk fell, and the dragon's screams ripped through the air.

Berk awakened and prepared to meet the scourge with equal vigour. As they came together the two sides could suddenly hear the rising pitch of a night fury. Vikings got down on the ground and the dragons were confused by the approach of a dragon they had not been notified of. Before the quaking Villagers eyes, they saw the plasma blasts being fired.

The plasma blasts never hit the ground and instead, confusing all the villagers, erupted in the air in front of the dragons, this was followed by another then another. As the dragons decided to try pushing forward through this blockade the air was ripped apart by a sonic boom. Both Vikings and dragons were completely stunned at this use of sonic weaponry.

Toothless pulled up from his dive and restarted pummelling the air in front of the dragons with plasma blasts. He was careful not to hurt any of them but wanted them to leave Berk alone for just one night for the negotiations. Stormfly joined him by covering the paths of the more courageous dragons with her flame. The Berkians were stunned by this defence of their island by two dragons.

While the rest sat stunned Stoick saw what had happened with respect. Hiccup had lived up to the promises of the first part of his message, now Stoick had to prepare for the next part

Stoick summoned his guards and prepared to meet Hiccup to discuss his terms. He urged his men to look out for any unexpected ambush attacks. with his instincts on high alert he prowled further.

Hiccup got out of his position behind a tree as Stoick and his guard passed by him. He was surprised when he had seen Stoick with 30 guards, he had only been expecting a personal guard of 6, unfazed he began his silent ambush.

Stoick pressed on focused on the scene in front of him and trying to make out the silhouette of his boy or a dragon.

Astrid dropped from the branches and used the Viking's own Axe against him as she suffocated him to unconsciousness. After the tailing Viking was sleeping soundly she pressed on to catch up to the rest of the guard.

Stoick was more and more nervous by the second, He was surprised by the lack of confrontation and was supposing that this meeting was a trick. He glanced back to see his obedient guard scanning the trees.

Hiccup and Astrid were steadily taking down the Viking's from behind. Already they had taken down half of Stoick's guards and were still going.

Stoick became more concerned as he thought he heard the number of footsteps echoing through the forest decreasing. He again glanced back he saw the same Vikings still diligently scanning and resumed his stalk through the forest convinced nothing was wrong.

Hiccup and Astrid took down the final guard before Hiccup blasted into the air and landed in front of Stoick.

Stoick heard a blast from behind him. Before he could turn his head he heard feet impact the ground in front of him. He stared into the darkness before seeing a dark figure with two softly glowing blue parts near the midsection. He watched as this dark figure, presumed to be Hiccup, gave two plasma blasts to either side of him before he could react.

Hiccup stared at his father through his thermal vision. He was very scared but didn't want to show it, instead pretending to be as scary as the Chief himself. He startled Stoick with two larger-than-necessary shots to the concealed Torches on either side of the chief.

Stoick was immediately baffled at how clueless he had been while walking into this carefully planned trap. Regaining an air of confidence, he gave Hiccup, for he could now see him in the light of the torches, the serious look of a man meaning business.

Hiccup gave a mental sigh as he saw his father fix up an air of confidence. He decided he would play his game and softly ignited both his DFP nozzles and his dragon markings. He opened his mouth to speak

Stoick was heavily shocked as Hiccup raised the game with his trick. He now was presented with a distinct fear at this show of fire from his own son. Suddenly Hiccup broke the silence.

"relax Stoick, my purpose now is the same as it was when I gave you that message. I harbour no ill will or thoughts of murder and I expect to do this interaction honestly. We are here to present to you the notion of dragon peace. We will help defend your village against the raiding Vikings while you can stay patient with us as we work to stop them altogether."

Now the pride of Berk had accepted the deal with a mute understanding. His own son had shocked him, and the lack of guards worried him. Deciding to remember the wishes for his people, for peace, he made his decision.

"your offer to help is accepted. Provided you protect berk and betray none of us you are welcome to stay in the village while you plan to stop the attacks forever. I trust on your honour that you will abide by the terms of the deal?"

Hiccup was internally happy at his Father's acceptance of the help. Putting on his serios face and extinguishing his provoking fire displays he affirmed Stoicks statement.

"Yes, on my honour I will live by these terms as I seek the permanent peace that I dream of."

Stoick only had one more question to be completely sure this was true.

"and this is on your human honour? Are you sure that no draconic cunning is being used to betray this deal and harm my village?"

Hiccup again clearly restated his conviction.

"yes, I swear on my human honour of which there Is no draconic side telling me to deceive you."

As Stoick realised the familial importance of Hiccup's permission to come back to Berk he embraced Hiccup strongly.

"I thought I would only see your face as the face of my enemies. For me as a father that is possibly a fate worse than death and I am glad to have you back here. in the flesh. As allies."

Hiccup was initially taken aback by the encounter but recovering he remembered to mention his new friend that his father did not know about.

"Astrid, you can step out of the shadows now."

Stoick turned to watch Astrid stride out into the torchlight. Stoick was slightly shocked but relieved that Astrid was alright.

"Astrid! We thought the dragons had killed you and I am glad that we were wrong. Welcome back into the village 'dragon fighter'"

Astrid looked away in concern. Stoick noticed this and questioned her.

"what's wrong? You seem troubled."

Astrid gave a small smile at the irony of her thought. She relayed it to Stoick

"nothing's wrong. I was just thinking about how apt my description as a 'dragon' warrior was."

Stoick was about to wonder what she was talking about when Astrid showed him her hand growing a scale before retracting it again. Stoick was overcome with thought.

"so, you're like Hiccup now."

Astrid tried to lighten the situation

"but I am still Astrid! These changes don't change who we are in mind."

Stoick was glad to hear the optimistic tone and realised the one part of the homecoming he had forgotten: coming home.

"Now that we have our deal I would love to reintroduce you to the Village."

He turned

"although I still am worried that this deal will not go smoothly I gladly welcome you back"

Hiccup and Astrid smiled. Their intricate plan had worked, and they had finally been welcomed back. Their acceptance rang through their minds as they made the hike back to the village


	9. 9: acceptance, love and then Snotlout

**Hiccup gone half fury 9**

 **A/N**

 **Regular Updates of 1500+ words are shared between my stories.**

 **With night fury magic creating a metal what would the metal be called. I'll replace my own version with the first name I receive**

 **I restarted using bold for dragon speech towards the end of the story and I hope I can keep that going.**

 **Chapter 9: acceptance and love?**

As they trekked Hiccup was needing to ask Stoick something important.

"Stoick, we need to take care of our dragons, they are after all the ones who prevented the raid. How will we be able to do so if we are in the village?

Stoick was annoyed that he had missed this obvious point.

"Hiccup, I can't let dragons into the village no matter what. I can arrange for somewhere on the outskirts but that's all. It's better for you and it's better for the village when the dragons and the villagers don't interact. I'm sorry but this is how it has to be son."

Stoick paused long enough to see his son's small nod in understanding. He also had a question from when he had discovered all his guards had gone.

"where did you put the guards that were _supposed_ to be guarding me. Although I must say it is worrying that you dealt with skilled men so easily."

Hiccup nodded again and answered Stoick, slight amusement apparent in his voice.

"we just moved them to Gothi's. Also, it wasn't so hard, your men are basically deaf."

Stoick sighed as he realised the small weakness in his horde of guards. He would have to get someone with good hearing next time.

Stoick entered the village limits after checking that his men were, in fact, at Gothi's. Slightly surprised that they were he prepared to introduce Hiccup and Astrid back to the village.

Stoick wandered through the village until he entered the forge to meet his best friend (who hadn't been with him on the raid because he was making more weapons and noting the use of a sonic boom by a night fury). He entered the hut followed by the two teens who were apprehensive of meeting Gobber, especially Hiccup since his last encounter hadn't gone so well.

Gobber eagerly greeted Stoick and was amazed that Astrid was there. However, his gaze darkened as he saw Hiccup and grasped an axe as he warned the chief.

"Stoick the dragon boy is behind ye!"

Stoick kept on approaching Gobber before reaching out and holding the axe head so Gobber couldn't throw it.

"Gobber I know that Hiccup is behind me and you should be careful about saying that title about my son in the middle of the village."

Gobber prepared to be quiet but couldn't resist tossing an insult

"Hiccup, I don't believe that you are coming back is a good thing. You've thrown your lot in with them and betrayed the village."

Hiccup was heavily upset by the comments by his adopted father (by attention given). His face darkened to match Gobber's

"I have not chosen a side. My side is peace and I'll do that by repelling the dragon forces that raid us, not fighting them."

Gobber continued his insult towards the perceived 'dragon boy'

"decided not to fight the dragons? Ye've gotten very weak for a Viking when ye say that!"

Hiccup's eyes noticeably changed to dragon's ones which glowed hauntingly to reflect his restrained anger.

"I am stronger than all of you becauseI _don't_ want to fight the dragons. if not by my will to stop this war then by my muscle in the traditional Viking way. Watch this."

After he had said that last part he easily picked up an axe, then he spun it, so the ends were glowing from speed. Finally, he threw it outside the door into a large mound of earth. The Viking axe went straight through it and split the mound of earth completely in two.

Stoick, Gobber and Astrid stared at the show of strength that surpassed even Stoick's own. All of those present to watch this were stunned. Stoick even muttered a quick "Beard of Thor, what was that?". Hiccup turned to face them.

"Although I just showed you some of my power I don't expect to use it, just to let you know that I mean business."

He walked past the astounded others before asking one slight question.

"where will we be staying tonight, me and Astrid."

Stoick recovered and straightened.

"since the settlement for your dragons hasn't been started yet you will have to stay in the same room back at my house."

Astrid was taken aback by the announcement.

"Can't I go back to my own house"

Stoick prepared his explanation

"Not yet. Your family used your room for storage, until it is cleared away into other buildings it is unusable. Also, it is a great opportunity for the two escapists to get to know each other better."

Astrid was again stunned at this suggestion that they were becoming 'closer than friends'. Hiccup had the best reaction:

"what in the hel- "

Before he collapsed on the floor. Stoick was taken aback by the severity of Hiccup's reaction and then laughed.

"it seems dragon strength doesn't apply when resisting ideas of romance"

Stoick continued laughing until he was jabbed in the chest. He looked up to see Astrid with a look of murder on her face. Wisely shutting up Stoick up Hiccup to bring him to his old room.

Astrid was fuming on Hiccup's bed. Firstly, he suggested that she and Hiccup were a couple when Astrid barely had any feelings for Hiccup. Secondly he forced them to share a bed together. It was humiliating with this treatment being given to the most respected young shield maiden on the island.

Overcome by her angry thoughts she eventually returned to look at the situation with an optimistic mind. Her thoughts were like when she was trying to accept she may have to marry Hiccup but now she had more understanding him. He was surprisingly forgiving, not arrogant like Snotlout and could be as serious as the chief himself. With these thoughts she eventually became accepting to her condition. Just before she went to sleep she felt a large presence

Toothless and Stormfly waited on a tree to watch how the meeting would go. They watched as their two friends walked through the Forest with the loathsome chief, they watched as they disappeared into the burn building. As they watched the burn building a streak of light came from an axe as it pinwheeled towards the ground before cleaving it into two. Toothless smiled in satisfaction at the realisation that only Hiccup could have done that with his new strength.

They kept on watching before they saw a slightly distressing scene: Stoick was carrying a still Hiccup on his back. The two dragons were about to attack before they saw Astrid walking behind him without worry. As the two dragons saw that the chief had led Hiccup and Astrid into the Chief's house they began to make their way towards this same house determined to see what had happened to Hiccup.

Toothless and Stormfly entered the house with as little noise as they could. They were anxious when they heard their own loud footsteps but continued when they heard Chief Stoick's snoring. They snuck around until they heard Astrid rolling around trying to go to sleep. They entered the room and surprisingly found Astrid and Hiccup in the same bed (Hiccup had made different beds back at dragon island quickly to _avoid_ sleeping with Astrid), they were about to question whether Astrid was in love before they saw the look of fury in her eyes.

After Toothless and Stormfly had properly found Astrid they decided to question her about Hiccup. Toothless started first at a whisper.

"Astrid what happened to Hiccup? Was he hurt by the other Viking's? is he okay?"

Astrid came to realise who had entered the room and set about answering the questions.

"He's fine, he fainted when he found out we were sharing a bed."

Stormfly accidentally let slip a question

"aren't you two practically engaged by now?"

Astrid restrained herself from attacking the dragon and causing a commotion that the chief might hear. She angrily whispered her reply

"NO, WE ARE NOT! I know him, but I don't think he is worthy of my affections!"

Toothless both realised she was confined due to not wanting to make any noise and had insulted his best friend. He teased her.

"I think my friend is very worthy of your affections, jealous that he doesn't love you?"

Astrid snorted in barely contained fury while Toothless just gave a quiet laugh.

"I was kidding to make you embarrassed, but my Friend is still very worthy. Now goodbye until tomorrow, meet us by the cove."

The two dragons left behind a confused Astrid who felt kind of betrayed but accepting that the dragons may be right.

As Astrid prepared for sleep so too did Toothless and Stormfly as they headed off to the shelter at the cove. As they walked Stormfly urged some conversation.

"I thought that Hiccup and Astrid were already in love! Do you think that they will ever get closer?"

Toothless snorted at the love-confused Nadder but acknowledged he didn't know the answer

"I don't know, Hiccup's pretty shy and Astrid is very stoic however they went through a lot together. I personally hope they get closer together since having those two humans so repellent to each other is getting quite annoying."

Stormfly also snorted with the recollection of their many brainless fights. Hiccup would accidentally get too intimate and Astrid would spark off a heavy revenge.

They reached the cove and started to rest on the furs of the shelter.

Hiccup got up first after his longer period of Sleep. He quickly noticed where he was and got out of bed before Astrid noticed him. He cautiously made his way over to the mead hall so that he could remember some of the other Viking's. who would no doubt be hanging around from last night.

The first one he ran into was unfortunately Gobber. He still regarded Hiccup as a Traitor.

"I'm sorry lad but ye joined the dragon's one time and that is unforgivable in our society."

Hiccup sensed this was going to be an interesting look for forgiveness but decided to show Gobber he wasn't just a traitor.

"I can help the village! And I can show you that right now."

Hiccup gestured for Gobber to follow him as he walked over to the forge. Gobber was confused at Hiccup's chosen destination.

"of all places to go to. Why my forge?"

Hiccup set off with intense motivation

"to show you I can be useful"

Gobber was about to respond but Hiccup pulled out a broken metal shield centre and strap. Gobber was unimpressed.

"now what could ye possibly do with that. That shield piece is too bent to do anything but melt down!"

Hiccup replied with a nervous smile.

"not if you factor in dragon magic and flame."

Gobber was astounded that Hiccup would be talking about such arcane powers. Hiccup was also confused on what to do but he was given clarity by his instinctual dragon knowledge. Hiccup picked it up higher before using a strong steady beam of fire to heat it up. He then used his strength to gradually pull the shield part together again even while it was hot.

Gobber was astonished that Hiccup had managed to put the mangled shield part back to pristine condition, but Hiccup wasn't over yet. His dragon knowledge had given him the means for a fantastic finale to this trick and he was hoping that this might help Gobber accept him again. He prepared his cloud of magic and released it onto the shield part. Gobber was confused at this strange version of dragon fire but the purpose was revealed slowly as Hiccup shaped the cloud around the shield part.

When it had been done Hiccup dispersed the lingering cloud and turned to show his old master the shield. It had an underlying sense of pride that he had been able to show his old master such good handiwork, but he knew it was also to get himself out of trouble. Gobber didn't know how much pressure He had put on Hiccup but was astonished at the shield.

The shield was a circle with the ends rounded off it. Instead of having the boss in the middle and the rim at the outside the entire shield was a single piece of metal that sloped from the raised middle to the edges. Gobber was curious and picked up the shield. Surprised that it was so light he decided to give a questioning glance to Hiccup. Hiccup was still trying to act proud to hide his inner stress but explained the anomaly.

"It is a light but strong metal that is created from a night furies magic. You may not respect how it was made but isn't it at least a fine shield?"

Gobber held the shield with a bit of distrust when he heard it was made from night fury magic but agreed that it was a good shield.

Hiccup decided to show the strength of the shield by lifting a heavy Viking war axe and swinging it at the shield. The shield was unscathed, but the axe head was severely bent. Gobber was even more surprised at how strong the material was.

"how can a material be that strong and light at the same time?"

Hiccup shrugged

"just dragon magic. I know it isn't what the Vikings like, but it is very powerful. I think I'll be keeping this shield and before I leave I would like to tell you something. I don't have a lot of dragon magic so please don't come for more weapons too often."

The last part was a lie and Hiccup quietly hoped that Gobber couldn't see that. Gobber accepted the explanation. Gobber then gave some words of advice to whom he now saw as his lost apprentice come back.

"although this is remarkable I have to warn ye that you are not accepted as a Viking among those who are friends with yer father. They know what happened when you left and will take a disliking to ye"

Hiccup gratefully accepted Gobber's welcome and was glad that Gobber had welcomed him as an apprentice again.

Gobber was confused as to why he had accepted 'Hiccup the dragon boy' so easily. He assumed it was something to do with how empty the forge felt without him and that kind of familial nonsense.

Astrid was now awake from her restless slumber and was momentarily surprised when she felt that Hiccup had left her side. Her emotional mind said she was getting lonely but her rational mind said this couldn't be the case. She liked Hiccup, not loved him. The real question to herself was: 'was she telling a lie to herself or not?' she didn't know how to respond to that question.

She walked to the ring, where she felt she belonged. The other teens were shocked to see her come after assuming she was dead. She was expecting some respect for herself but forgot to factor in Snotlout.

"Hey Astrid. Look who missed Snotlout showing everyone how strong he is!"

As Snotlout flexed his arm to display his point Astrid walked up to him.

"so, what have you got to say to these muscles."

Astrid continued walking towards Snotlout with curses being screamed in her mind. She then reached Snotlout and gave a casual twist of his arm. Snotlout was in uproar.

"since when were you strong enough to deal with _my_ muscle?!"

Astrid didn't want to reveal that she was in league with Hiccup just yet but decided to wrap her explanation in some humiliation for Snotlout.

"I was always strong enough. You just simply have no serious muscles."

Snotlout was seething but did not want to lash out at his dream girlfriend. It was at this moment Hiccup entered the ring. Initially the others were distracted by the emotional conversation in front of them, but they turned to see Hiccup when they heard his footsteps. The conversation died immediately and Snotlout hid behind Astrid to protect himself against Hiccup. Astrid snorted at the laughable coward Snotlout was proving to be.

Astrid walked forward and greeted Hiccup. The other teens were a little suspicious. Especially considering this show of greetings contrasted their last violent encounter with Hiccup. Luckily for everyone Hiccup was looking calmer than he had been last time but blushed when he met Astrid. Annoyingly, Ruffnut noticed this.

"why are you blushing Hiccup?"

Hiccup was blindsided by a sudden nervousness and accidentally blurted out an answer.

"Me and Astrid kind of slept in the same bed last night."

Before he was fully aware of his massive mistake Astrid made a move to slap him. Hiccup caught the blow in mid air with a slight grunt of effort. Hiccup whispered something in dragonese that only Astrid could hear.

"I'm sorry that I said that. Also keep in mind that Night furies are stronger than Nadders. Luckily for me"

Astrid took her palm away with a snort while Snotlout thought that this was the perfect time to get his revenge.

"Aw… how sweet. Astrid and Hiccup sitting in a tre S- "

He was cut off by both Hiccup and Astrid giving him a death glare. Snotlout gulped, this would not go well for him.

A few minutes later Hiccup and Astrid were confident that Snotlout had received his fair share of bruises for that comment. Snotlout merely groaned in defeat.

Gobber entered the arena and broke up the moment with his introduction for the day.

"Today, since we still have no dragons, ye will be doing more hand to hand combat in preparation for any attacks by raiders. Astrid and Hiccup will be sitting out today since they've become too advanced for this session. The teens were confused at this special treatment. Normally Gobber never did anything like this for any fighter learning under him. Snotlout tried his failed luck again with a whisper to Tuffnut.

"I think we all know why those two are sitting out don't we Tuffnut. Yeah that's right, because their _lovebirds_ who don't deserve to fight alongside the real Vikings."

Hiccup and Astrid both shifted at this mockery, but Hiccup got to Snotlout first. He took off his shield (to a round of awe for the other teens) and used it to give a blunt blow to Snotlout' s chest. While he was down Astrid used the opportunity to bounce her axe on Snotlout' s stomach. Snotlout gave a quick gripe about how unfair it was before shutting up.

Hiccup re sheathed the Shield on his back and walked towards the spectator area. Astrid followed him suspiciously slowly while brandishing her axe for her own amusement.

The teens began fighting once Snotlout had recovered. Astrid and Hiccup sat close together as spectators while watching the boring fight go down.

They both quietly resolved to do something more during tomorrow's session.

Toothless and Stormfly both hovered ahead as they laughed quietly at how close Astrid and Hiccup were.


	10. 10: shifters in the ring

**Hiccup gone half fury**

 **A/N**

 **There is a lot of powers that are shared throughout the series. If you want to have some new ones then don't hesitate to ask with your suggestions**

 **There is an author's note in the middle of this update to separate my normal writing and me trying to add more detail**

 **Chapter 10: shifters in the ring.**

Hiccup got up from his bed after another night spent wondering how to stop the dragon hordes. He resolved he would have to go with Toothless to see what they could do at the nest. The good news was that there hadn't been an attack last night and Hiccup could only hope that this meant the end of raids. He wasn't so sure though and already expected a raid on this night.

He got out of bed and prepared his gear for the dragon fighting ring. His crafted shield was taken out of its case and laid on the floor to be mounted later. Hiccup put on leather armour just in case a blow got through (which was highly unlikely). Hiccup's sword was currently just plain old Viking iron, but he would see to that for the next time he got to the forge. Perhaps Toothless could help with that as well

Around the same time as Hiccup was getting ready Astrid prepared for her day as well. Unlike Hiccup she had not made any advanced weaponry and so stuck to her normal attire. The only alterations she made were slits in the back of the shirt and around the tailbone, so she could use her dragon abilities if it was so needed.

Hiccup brought his shield onto his back and added a few auxiliary weapons to a shoulder strap (throwing knives). Having suited up he walked towards the arena.

Astrid lightly picked up her axe onto her shoulder and headed off for the next round of dragon training. On the way there she met Hiccup. They conversed about the pitiful state of the other teens while Astrid was overcome with a little jealousy for Hiccup's new shield. When she asked about it Hiccup laughed and told her it was a special trick of the night fury. Astrid loathed that little secret but was happy that Hiccup had put his crafting skills to good use.

Hiccup and Astrid entered the arena again for the second day. Gobber watched them suspiciously as they entered, for he had never seen such a high quality of teen before in his life. He understood that it was part of changing into half dragons, but he was still wary of their abilities.

Hiccup and Astrid laughed while Astrid swung her axe. They were having fun until they saw the other teens, when the duo saw the teens they calmed down and got ready for battle. Gobber chose this moment to break some bad news.

"due to the fact there wasn't a raid we still don't have any dragons for you to train against. Until we can find some we will have to just have to do some more duels."

Astrid found a problem with what Gobber had just said.

"but you know we have 4 dragons that could fight."

The teens were getting excited at the prospect of finally getting to fight dragons. Ruffnut broke up the tense silence.

"so, where are the dragons?"

Gobber sighed, the teens had forced his hand

"two of them are at the village perimeter and two of them are right in front of you."

The teens were confused until Astrid stepped forwards.

"Hiccup and I are the two dragons that he mentions. I'm a deadly Nadder and he is a night fury."

The teens laughed with this statement and Tuffnut gave his verdict.

"is this Loki day or something? I'm sorry to tell you but Loki day isn't for a while."

This set the others off and they laughed louder until Hiccup and Astrid shifted into their dragon forms. Once Hiccup had made his point he changed back to inform the dragon riders of the rules.

"Okay warriors today the objective is to make ' _the deadly Nadder'_ go into a cage [he gestures to the open cages]. No trying to harm the ' _Nadder_ ' or you'll be very, very sorry"

As the teens spread out into their fighting positions, Astrid gave her assurances to Hiccup.

" **I don't think they'll be able to move me into that cage because they're too weak."**

Hiccup smiles and relays the message to the fighters.

"The Nadder says that you won't be able to get her in the cages because you're too weak."

As he hoped, Snotlout took this as an insult to his family name, again, and charged the Nadder (aka Astrid). Astrid waited until he was close before using her talons to rip the shield from Snotlout. As Snotlout started backing up, Astrid gave him a charge and head butted him unconscious. She then stood in the middle of the arena again, waiting for the teen's next move.

Hiccup awoke them from their shock with an encouragement.

"what are you standing there for? CHARGE!"

The teens gave a lopsided war cry before charging at Astrid. While she took on the teens, Gobber gave some words to Hiccup.

"first off: are you sure she won't hurt the Viking's? Second: since when were you giving orders?"

Hiccup smiled and gave his reply as battle sounds filled the air.

"yes, I'm sure, she isn't a full blooded Dragon and so she doesn't want anyone to be hurt badly. She may give them a few bruises though not anything serious. Also, I started giving orders because I felt like it."

Gobber was thankful to hear the first part but didn't like the sound of the last part.

"you shouldn't tell an Elder what to do, Hiccup."

[By now the only reason that Astrid hadn't beaten the teens was because they were confusing her with noise.]

Hiccup smiled and did a sarcastic imitation of himself when he was younger.

"you are playing a dangerous game here, keeping all this raw dragon-Vikingness contained"

Gobber was surprised when this statement, coming from the new Hiccup, did scare him. Astrid had managed to disarm the teens while Gobber and Hiccup had been talking and crowed her Victory over the scared Viking teens.

" **yes,** _ **I**_ **am the strongest one around, all bow before the almighty Astrid. Best warrior of the village."**

Hiccup caught this arrogant show of victory and smiled before saying a mocking reminder

"aren't you forgetting little old me?"

Astrid turned around to look at Hiccup. There was excitement in her eyes but also hesitation.

" **are you sure you want to fight? I don't want to accidentally hurt you."**

Hiccup acknowledged this with a small nod before giving his affirmative reply.

" **I am sure, just no actual fighting, let's give these teens a show."**

He said as he transformed into a night fury again. The teens (including Snotlout.) watched with wonder as the two beasts clashed in their mock duel. Magnesium flare was met with plasma blast. And when Hiccup tried to skirt around to attack Astrid from behind he would be blocked by spines. The two combatants danced around each other as the teens watched in awe.

Eventually both combatants were tired enough to disengage from their active fight. They changed into their human forms and hugged each other for balance while laughing hysterically. They turned to their audience and the teens didn't know anything but to applause the two fighters. Even Gobber clapped the shifters. Happy with the applause the half-dragons turned towards each other, so they could discuss their battle. Hiccup started.

"you have a very slow spine attack. You need to whip your tail, or it doesn't get enough speed."

Astrid retorted

"and your ground agility as a night fury is horrible. Don't drag all your limbs while your attention is on me."

They continued talking and Gobber looked on in pride. Even though they were talking about fighting as dragons, they were still reviewing their process like normal Vikings should. Happy that they had talked enough they made their way back towards the Village. Snotlout offered his annoyed review of his skirmish.

"I don't think we should face those relatives of Loki (trickery through form) again. Why can't we practise on normal dragons? They are far too good; did you _see_ them fighting?"

Gobber was mostly uninterested in Snotlout' s anger after the amazing show of combat. but gave him his answer:

"they're the only dragons that you can train on. They have their own full-blooded dragons but those are off limits to you."

Snotlout was irritated by this.

"why can't we get them? there isn't any other dragons on this island so why can't we fight the full-blooded dragons."

Gobber replied with a sly smile.

"if you want them then talk to Hiccup and Astrid about getting them for dragon training. I'm _sure_ they will let you have them."

Snotlout paled at Gobber's words. Gobber was right, if he wanted the dragons he would have to go through the supernaturally strong teens defending them. He unanimously decided that going after the dragons was a bad idea.

Fishlegs was listening to the words of Gobber with interest. He was basically uninterested in fighting anyway and so talking with Hiccup and Astrid would be a better use of his time. He hurried off in pursuit as the twins just watched him go in confusion. Why would Fishlegs chase after those who had hurt him so much?

Hiccup and Astrid were walking through the forest together. Unaware of Fishlegs hoping to have a chat with them.

 **(A/N: start of try for improved detail. Please tell me how this goes)**

Hiccup and Astrid continued pushing easily through the dark undergrowth underneath the tough trees. They were having a nice time without having to worry about the others but then they heard ferns being snapped.

Hiccup instinctively sidestepped and crouched behind one gnarly old tree while Astrid got behind another. The rustling got louder, and the duo gripped their weapons close to themselves. Just as Fishlegs came past, Hiccup and Astrid blocked his path with their silver blades held towards him.

Fishlegs halted with a shrill shriek and Astrid sighed and rolled her eyes while Hiccup just dropped the end of the blade towards the ground. Hiccup approached Fishlegs with an annoyed stride.

"why have you been following us?"

Fishlegs took a long time to recover from the shock of being ambushed in the dark forest.

"I was hoping to ask you about something."

Hiccup ushered the irritated Astrid away, so he could talk to the fearful Fishlegs.

"what do you want to ask. Please keep it short, I have … other places to be."

Fishlegs gulped down his terror and did his question.

"how can you turn into dragons?"

Hiccup was thankful, this was an easy question to answer.

"magic."

Fishlegs was confused

"but I meant _how._ Magic is a bit vague."

Hiccup willed himself to be calm as he continued his explanation. He could only hope that Fishlegs didn't ask more so Hiccup could disappear into the forest and head to Toothless.

"but that's what happened. Odin knows what happened, but I just know there was a strange gas and then I'm half night fury."

As Fishlegs quietly thought on his answer Hiccup thought this was the chance to flee into the concealing undergrowth. He was stopped when Fishlegs asked a question that was very important for Hiccup.

"are you friends with the dragons?"

Hiccup paused mid step as he reflected on this statement. He thought through his experiences with the ring dragons who had been nicer than he thought. He also thought about the raiding dragons who had always seemed very aggressive.

"I am friends with some dragons but not all. I want to find out what makes the raiding dragons so evil. I feel that we could all live in harmony, but I don't know where to start the peace."

Fishlegs nodded in understanding.

"I hope you succeed in your, uhm, dragon quest?"

Hiccup giggled at the unsure look on Fishlegs face as he said those two last words, but he was also respectful for his encouragement. He had to wonder why Fishlegs would care so much.

"why are you interested in me stopping the dragon raids? I am thankful but aren't you supposed to be a dragon fighter? What about all the time you've spent training?"

Fishlegs straightened up a bit as he prepared to tell Hiccup the unusual news.

"I know that I am a Viking, but you _know_ that I'm not a fighter. I prefer to read and think, not fight. [laughs sheepishly] No, I am _not_ a dragon killer."

Hiccup was glad to know that someone held the same views as him on dragon killing. He decided to give his newest friend something he would remember, a token of his friendship. He gave Fishlegs the happy news of the gift and listened for his answer.

"would you like to see Berk from the air?"

Fishlegs was baffled but then he realised the connection to Hiccup's other form.

"oh yes! [draws back his enthusiasm from nervousness] if you wouldn't mind?"

Hiccup told him he didn't mind carrying Fishlegs before shifting into a dragon, small purple clouds wafted off the edges of his new body. Hiccup waited for Fishlegs to make a move except Fishlegs was too stunned, even if this was his second witnessing of Hiccup's transformation.

Hiccup grew tired of waiting for Fishlegs and so Flipped the chubby boy onto his dragon neck. Fishlegs gasped at the realisation of where he was sitting before Hiccup started a vertical take-off. Fishlegs noticed the sudden sound and looked back and down to see twin streams of fire coming from Hiccup's right side. He noticed the same thing on Hiccup's left before Hiccup started lifting off the ground, slowly because of his first time flyer.

As small flames blossomed on the mossy forest floor they were extinguished by heavy wingbeats. Hiccup thrusted his wings to transition into Horizontal flight. Once he was cruising he turned off his DFP and flew gracefully.

Fishlegs was astonished at the new view but Hiccup was prepared to give him an even better one. He flapped harder and started ascending quickly, but not too quickly lest his passenger fell off.

Fishlegs was surprised at the sudden acceleration but also was happy to realise that his view expanded as Hiccup gained altitude. Fishlegs watched in awe as Hiccup made a turn towards the village side of the island.

As they cruised past the serene and vivid forest they eventually came into view of the village. Fishlegs noted this new view of his village with fascination. He noticed the Villagers walking around and passed it on to Hiccup.

"they look so small down there, this view is amazing! Just imagine all the charts we could do with this view!"

Hiccup gave a dragon sigh as he was reminded of Fishleg's love of mapmaking. However, when he thought of the villagers of berk going about their daily business he had a mischievous idea.

"before we go and make a map of berk why don't we have fun with the inhabitants? Are you in the mood for aerobatics?"

Fishlegs was astonished at the speech but after remembering that Hiccup could change any body part at will he accepted this oddity and agreed to the offer. Hiccup smiled and tucked in his wings for a dive.

Berk's citizens were performing their daily routine before they heard the whistle which was out of place in the middle of the day.

"night fury! Get down!"

They hit the deck but were surprised when instead of hearing a blast they heard the night fury pull up. They lifted their heads and were treated to the view of the night fury flying at low level across the village. Some of the braver ones lifted their weapons at this unwelcome intruder only for the weapons to be taken from their grip. They were surprised and then irritated as the night fury put the weapons out of reach.

One person had the foresight to run straight for the main catapult. He organised a group of villagers as he ran, and they took control of the catapult. The night fury noticed too and flew over to the catapult. Then instead of blasting the catapult he waited until they had loaded the catapult and then stole the boulder and threw it into the sea.

The villagers kept trying to load but the night fury managed to get rid of the boulder every time. After giving up the Group watched as the last boulder splashed and sunk, and the night fury hovered in the air.

Instead of finishing them in their tired state the night fury did a dragon laugh before flying off to the sea. The villagers were very confused at the night furies playful habit and a small seed of contemplation was sown into their minds. The seeds might not grow but it was a small success for Hiccup.

Fishlegs struggled to not throw up but after he had recovered he revelled in the adrenalin of the stunt flight. Hiccup was gliding softly over the Berkians sea and both half dragon and chubby boy appreciated the silence of the smooth flight. After a while Fishlegs was tempted to ask a question to follow up the stunt flight.

"how fast can you go?"

Hiccup was happy to show Fishlegs this and gave Fishlegs a quick warning before he showed off.

"hold on tight! I can go faster than anything you've ever _seen!_ "

Fishlegs gulped in anticipation and the DFP nozzles on Hiccup's sides gradually flared up with their vibrant light blue flame. Fishlegs felt the acceleration and was suddenly overcome with nervousness.

"I don't think I like being at your top speed!"

Hiccup just snorted at the adorable fear that Fishlegs exhibited. Hiccup knew that Fishlegs had asked for his top speed and this was nowhere near.

"That isn't even my top speed! I'm sorry for your nervousness but this is fun!"

This was not the reaction that Fishlegs had hoped for. He had been expecting the quiet Hiccup who wouldn't mind changing his behaviour because of other's opinions, Hiccup was not that boy anymore. (There should be no pity for the passenger of the half night fury because he probably should have noticed this sooner (far sooner). The fact that the boy was not a human was a huge hint after all).

With Fishlegs realising the scary implications of his rash question Hiccup gave a second burst. The air rushed past faster and faster. While Fishlegs ducked to get out of this strong airflow he could also see a localised cloud begin to form. He was beginning to wonder if night furies made their own weather systems but was stopped when Hiccup answered his unspoken question.

"those clouds only form when I get close to the sound barrier. It's a speed that no Viking has ever been at and that's probably why you wouldn't know about it."

Fishlegs was appreciative of the information and made a mental note. Hiccup gave a small sigh and Fishlegs wondered why. He questioned Hiccup and Hiccup responded

"I find it nostalgic with this geeky conversation going on."

Fishlegs was about to wonder how Hiccup could possibly be nostalgic when flying at such high speeds. He was interrupted when he noticed the cloud had disappeared. He was now only aware of the still high winds and was mystified about where the cloud had gone. Hiccup was able to answer the predictable question.

"the cloud disappeared because I travelled through the sound wave. Did you ever think you would get an explanation of the sonic boom from a talking dragon?"

Fishlegs understood the strangeness of the situation but his geeky side came out again to ask about the latter part of his statement.

"what is a sonic boom and what is it like?"

Hiccup took a moment to embrace the feeling of the high speed air flowing past his scales before answering Fishleg's question. He slowed down to let the sound catch up.

"a sonic boom is an explosion of sound that happens when I go through the sound barrier. And to answer the second part you just need to wait."

Fishlegs waited as instructed and suddenly heard the deafening sound. Hiccup waited until Fishlegs had recovered.

" _that's_ what a sonic boom is like. Would you like to know anything else my curious friend?"

Fishlegs declined

"no thank you. I would just want to get back to dry land"

Hiccup did as instructed and carefully turned back towards berk. He finally arrived as the skies were dark and dropped off Fishlegs in the quiet village out of sight of the patrols.

Hiccup then flew towards the shelter for the dragons where Astrid was waiting for him. He landed outside and searched for Astrid until he could hear her trying to be stealthy behind him. He turned and saw Astrid with her axe drawn. She started the conversation with an irritated question

"Where were you?"

Hiccup gave a mellow response

"I was just showing Fishlegs how a sonic boom works."

Astrid was even more irritated.

"you did that for _an hour_? We were stuck here waiting for you for so long!"

Hiccup wanted to get out of this argument so after a bit of planning he used a dirty trick to get out of the conversation.

"so, you missed me? Dear me Astrid that sounds a bit _romantic_ for your taste!"

Astrid was lost for words and Hiccup seized this opportunity and ran towards Toothless while shifting into human form. He felt guilty for relying on the night fury for protection, but he didn't want to meet Astrid after his blatant statement.

"goodnight bud."

And Toothless gave him a warm reply before settling into his sleep. Hiccup got into bed and closed his eyes.

Astrid was still in disbelief; many questions were travelling through her mind 'how could he say that!? I do _not_ love him. Or do I? did I really say that? I am the proudest shield maiden and I want to keep it that way!'

Stormfly was wondering what was happening to Astrid and walked over the dark sand to nudge her in the direction of the torch lit shelter. Astrid decided to resume this debate in the morning and went to sleep like Hiccup in their animal fur beds.

 **A/N**

 **No Fishlegs - Hiccup romance. Just an honest geek to geek respectfulness.**

 **Tell me how the personalities are going. Is Astrid still stubborn enough in this update and is Hiccup peaceful yet shy?"**


	11. 11: fury of the ring, fury of battle

**Hiccup gone half fury**

 **A/N**

 **I** _ **really**_ **can't seem to keep the word count going. These updates are getting harder and harder, especially with school coming.**

 **We'll get the dragons from the ring back eventually.**

 **(response to anonymous review, skip if not interested)**

 **To the guest who said my story is not the first story featuring the half human idea: I do know. If I haven't made this clear. Also, the description is currently wrong (as of the time of writing). When I said first fanfiction about hiccup transforming into half night fury. I meant it was** _ **my**_ **first fanfiction about hiccup transforming into a half night fury. I will change it so it's clearer. Although I do not appreciate you saying that my description was a clickbait: My description is only meant to convey the content of the story and not to clickbait users into reading it. Any viewers reading this story because of the description are accidental (I apologise to any people to whom this is the case. I will change that erroneous description and I hoped you enjoyed my story regardless). Thanks for saying it was a good story.**

 **(end of response)**

 **Chapter 11:**

Hiccup woke to the tune of the rising sun. He noticed Astrid in the bed beside his, scowling as she slept. Hiccup did not want to face Astrid with her anger issues. He went towards the village to catch up with the daily affairs of his home. He brushed through the dense, lush undergrowth with ease and came to the top of the village. Here he revelled in the view of the village that was reminiscent of the time before his powers.

He was still unsure of his appearance around the village, so he donned a hood before traversing the uneven paths towards the blacksmiths; where he would craft until dragon training.

Astrid woke much later and noticed, to her annoyance, that Hiccup had gone before she had woken up. For a pair united in situation she was irritated that Hiccup seemed to try to avoid her. She picked up her axe, mounted it on her waist, and walked briskly towards Berk.

She arrived by midmorning and the sun had firmly acquired it's place in the sky, this was a problem since she was, like Hiccup, reluctant to show her face. She fashioned a hood in the traditional way to keep one's face hidden, before putting it on and walking stealthily through the awake village.

Hiccup was working on one of the broken weapon piles. He heard a quiet knock and wondered who would visit the house of the blacksmith's presumed dead apprentice. He warily opened the door, expecting to see the brutish face of his father, but instead saw the angry eyes of his fellow half dragon. He took a few steps back before steadying himself, he also tried to make awkward conversation with the irritated girl.

"Sooo- Astrid, what are you doing here"

Astrid gave him a look of distrust.

"why do you keep staying away from me? Have you got something to hide, Hiccup?"

Hiccup saw that this was likely to lead to a fight. A fight that, although he was stronger than Astrid now, he didn't want to happen. A voice from a mysterious location in his mind whispered a useful hint:

" _step back into the shadows, the shadows will save you from this fight."_

Hiccup, seeing no other option, took the voice's advice and started stepping back. Astrid, however, saw this as weakness and gave a slow advance to corner Hiccup and get him talking. Hiccup kept backing slowly into the darkened corner while Astrid pushed the advantage. Hiccup reached the corner, and, before Astrid could attack, disappeared into the shadows. Astrid swiped her hand through the air but encountered nothing.

Hiccup was aware that he wasn't in the corner of his apprentice area anymore, but rather in the normal forge area. He was confused until he realised with elation that he was no longer being cornered by Astrid. With this thought in mind he briefly poked his head into the apprentice area to speak a taunt:

"not a fan of the darkness anymore?"

Astrid both noticed he had moved mysteriously and had joked at her expense. She brought up her axe and gave chase to the fleeing boy. Hiccup acknowledged that he had played with fire and used all his speed to run from the girl.

"I thought _I_ was supposed to be the night _fury_ "

Astrid's _fury_ increased, and Hiccup was staying ahead by sheer skill. They kept the close chase going until the ring where Hiccup hid behind the other teens, where Astrid couldn't attack him without hitting the others. Astrid fumed as Hiccup laughed in success at avoiding the violent situation.

Gobber Strode in to the tense situation. He was interested to see that Hiccup had gotten Astrid extremely irritated but continued his lesson regardless.

"Today you will be facing Hiccup and Astrid again. Keep in mind that Astrid is still a Nadder and Nadders get distracted with noise. Hiccup is unknown but at least you can see him before he attacks, you're far luckier than other Vikings in that aspect."

Hiccup backed to the dragon ring wall and let Astrid take on the trainees in her dragon form. She did well against the surprised trainee's until Snotlout accidentally screamed in fright. She was taken off guard and this was when the teens remembered Gobber's advice and banged their shields. Astrid stubbornly resisted and tried to shoot but in the end she was forced back into the deserted cages.

The trainees saw their victory and rejoiced. Astrid, confused and tired, stayed in the cage until she had recovered enough to go out again. Hiccup saw this was the perfect time to surprise the teens and shifted into his dragon form. The teens heard the body shifting and turned around to see the horrifying sight: a pitch black beast honed for the killing.

All were completely unsure how to beat the night fury. They tried to confuse him with noise again, but Hiccup simply ignored the deafening noise and swiped the weapons out of their hands. Attempts at trying to regain their lost weapons were met with humiliating failures.

Hand to hand fighting went equally badly with the only success was a lucky tackle by Tuffnut that made Hiccup trip, He was immediately enraged and glowed dark purple as he tail-swiped the offending teen to the walls of the ring.

Hiccup, enraged, continually attacked the teens who were still foolhardy enough to stand in a battle stance. Snotlout tried his hardest to throw his hammer at the night fury…

The hammer swung, whistling, through the air; the hard steel rotating slowly towards the head of the night fury. one more revolution and it was there, positioned, heavy with momentum, and ready to strike.

Hiccup saw the Hammer coming but it was too late, His draconic skull easily deflected the heavy projectile, but the impact shook his head and dazed him for a while.

The teens were now aware of this weakness (having been watching with occasional weak attempts to fight), they seized on Hiccup's weakness and pressed the attack. Suddenly they stopped dead; Hiccup shook off the daze with assistance from his _fury_.

The tendril of gas reached around his head, turning clear and lens-like around his poison green eyes. The teens were woefully unprepared when Hiccup recovered quicker than humanely possible and retaliated even stronger than before. The teens were fought back again and retreated under the disabling strikes (Hiccup was still trying not to hurt them badly).

Now on dire straits the teens backed away while Hiccup roared his victory. Astrid was irritated as she came out of the dirty, grey cages

"why does the noise not affect _you_? Them hitting their shields was so nauseating." [at which point she collapsed]

The teens looked at the sleeping, scowling Astrid and decided this was the best time to leave. Gobber sighed with this unnecessary complication.

"now who is going to get this _dragon shifter_ out of my ring!"

Hiccup, not wanting to let Gobber know where their shelter was, volunteered to bring Astrid back to their home. Astrid lolled in her sleep as Hiccup fired up the DFP to help move her heavy, unconscious body. Hiccup then crouched and sprinted with Astrid in his arms.

Gobber watched them leave while a certain old man was wondering why there was dragon roars coming out of the ring (the village had been told about the departure of the dragons from the ring).

He planned to find out what this mysterious dragon was: once and for all.

Hiccup acknowledged how easy it had been to integrate into the village so far. Nobody had been extremely resistant, and Mildew was currently nowhere to be seen so far.

Hiccup walked awkwardly with the dead weight of Astrid blocking his view. Also, he was getting strange looks from the others since the pair had never shown romantic feelings towards each other. Hiccup walked faster to escape their wary gazes and continued to his destination. While he was briskly walking past the villagers he started wondering how the dragons that he had rescued from the ring were doing. He hoped they were sustaining themselves fine on the island's resources

The dragons of the ring were impatient. Hiccup and his assumed fiancée had left them for too long. Unsure of their current course of action a familiar face was remembered, someone who had wronged them many times during his life, Mildew. The dragons stretched their large wings, roared a challenge before setting off as a group back to berk.

Hiccup was nearing the forest, he looked around to check no one was following him before heading in. The shadows of evening became longer as Hiccup trekked through the forests. Hidden in one of these long shadows a man, coming to the main village from his far off home, stopped and watched Hiccup go by. Hiccup, only aware of Astrid's _charming_ behaviour as she slept, didn't notice the crafty old man trailing him back to the camp.

Chief Stoick was still mulling over the message that had been given by Hiccup to him. He respected his negotiating ability and his draconic power would make him a good chief. So, it was not for personal reasons that Stoick worried about Hiccup's new abilities, but rather his superstitious village who would not accept Hiccup with his inhuman powers.

He needed to deliver his promised speech at some point, he was glad that Hiccup and Astrid had kept their powers secret for now, but he knew it wouldn't last. He started reciting the speech he would give to his villagers, one man's words against a boatload of superstitious belief against the supernatural.

Dagur was feeling the need for expansion. The island he was on simply couldn't supply the needs of his industrial development. He took a map from the disused library and looked around the home island. He saw islands too small, Islands too treacherous, and then he came across an amazing site: Berk. He felt it was time to expand and the fleet was prepared for war.

Hiccup placed Astrid gingerly on her bed before resting outside. Stormfly and Toothless were playing another game that Hiccup didn't understand, and he felt like relaxing. He laid his head on the soft grass.

Mildew couldn't believe what he was seeing. Why had Hiccup and Astrid made their camp far outside the rest of the village? Why did they live together? Hiccup hadn't been a lady's ma-.

His thoughts were cut off when he heard an excited shriek, not coming from the cove. He turned to look for the source. His eyes widened when he saw two dragons playing right next to the cove entrance, he gasped and immediately regretted his mistake

Hiccup had just got into a comfortable position before an unwelcome voice filled the cove. A man, location given away by his accidental gasp, could see their entire location. Rapid magnification confirmed the man to be Mildew: a known dragon hater. Mildew turned suddenly and fled the area, Hiccup deployed his wings and flew after the dangerously informed old man.

The dragons were coming into magnified visual range. They would find that damned old man who had given them many wounds over their time in captivity. And then they would find Hiccup to know why he was still on that island. Burning (one of their group quite literally) with vengeance and curiosity they came ever closer to the green, unaware island

Dagur' s fleet was coming into visual range as well. They saw the dragons rushing towards the island and Dagur took the decision to briefly weigh anchor: until the village was blind to their invasion because of the dragon attack. Dagur smiled, the dragons would weaken the large village until his men could easily take it.

Mildew was unaware of this peripheral drama, he just needed to get to the village, to safety. His panicked steps reached the flat grass of the village limits and he became hopeful for escape.

Hiccup cursed when he lost the old man in the dense forests that had, ironically, hidden his camp for so long. He pulled off his last reconnaissance run before half looping back for another run. His eyes caught the sight of his target and, after a sharp bend, he was descending upon the spy. He swooped low to retract his wings, lest they cause unwanted attention. Now it was just him, on enhanced legs, and his accursedly agile victim.

Dagur watched eagerly, the village, he assumed, would be in the midst of a dragon raid. He raised anchor, swiftly cutting through the water onto a beach ideal for disembarking. Dagur took the first step onto the island's soil before urging off all his warriors. Once all his hardy, excited warriors were off the ship he ordered them to attack the village. His warriors took off at a quick run towards their destination.

Stoick was striding through the village, his confident stance hiding his internal toil. The speech _had_ to happen, but somehow, even now the seasoned warrior was feeling nervous.

The dragons of the ring were still surveying the area. Finding one man in the middle of a village was a hard task that these dragons, of course, had never done before. They flew high with an amazing view but still there was no sign of the weary man.

Toothless and Stormfly were confused when they stopped playing to find Hiccup missing. They would have shrugged off the wandering boy as just exploring the village, however they were horrified to hear the noise of dragon wings. Worried for their friend's life Toothless told Stormfly he would try to keep Hiccup safe. He travelled as fast as his quadrupedal legs could carry him.

Hiccup was irritated with himself. Mildew had gotten away while he was delayed by random villagers; the villagers stayed away from mildew but crowded around the young man who had been missing for so long. Hiccup was very aware of the danger that Mildew had, his witness could make the other Vikings hurt everyone he held dear.

Eventually, Stoick reached the centre of the village. His chest expanded as he prepared to speak his lines. No one was there but they would come when they heard his voice.

"People of Berk! My clan I am sworn to protect! Come to assembly, for we have _important_ matters to discuss."

His people, slightly cowed at the strength of his words, came together to hear what their respected chief had to say. An excited rumour cut through the crowd: what was this 'important manner'? dragons? Or something else…

Once Stoick had the attention of most of his people his booming voice yet again descended on his audience.

"Odin has blessed us!"

The people assembled looked to each other in confusion, a good thing was never the subject of these kinds of assemblies! Was this Loki day?

Stoick continued his speech, not heeding the heated whispers

"we lost a boy, a boy I may add, was useless in this village [the Vikings were still confused why this was the subject, although they agreed he had been useless]. The boy returned, and I hear you ask: 'why this boy? Once useless, always useless' and I would have agreed! However, the gods have blessed us; this boy returned, imbued with power; power of a dragon!"

The villagers were stunned. Stoick had presented well and most of them thought about the capabilities of a dragon imbued warrior or were distracted by thoughts of how someone as useless as Hiccup could have dragon powers. Some, however, were wary of all dragons and that included someone with dragon powers, these people spoke up against the blasphemy of a dragon infested spirit:

"Chief Stoick! With all respect, why would you let any dragon related being into our community. For all we know he could be transmitting our every move back to the dragons!"

Although far-fetched, their accusations of being a spy resonated through the crowd. People argued louder and small fights broke out. Stoick was about to call for them to be silent when one person accidentally did the same

"Dragons!"

The villagers looked up to see a small group of dragons flying overhead, the natural warriors unsheathed their weapons but were irritated that these dragons were out of range. The only warrior that could hit them at this range was contemplating the new threat. The dragons didn't seem to be making a move to attack… another shout rang out from a panicked lookout guard

"we're being invaded! 30 ships manned by Dagur' s men!"

The Vikings were taken off guard. The knowledge of both a sea and air attack had a natural effect on the people of Berk:

"WHAT!?"

Mildew suddenly appeared, hobbling swiftly away from an unseen threat. The dragons overhead locked on to this new person and started to dive

Hiccup appeared too, shocked to see so many Vikings assembled in the village. Some Villagers noticed him and gave him suspicious glances but were too focused on something else to berate him. Obviously Stoick had finally gave his speech to the village, however the reason behind the villager's distraction was not clear. He powered through the crowd towards his father for an explanation.

Stoick saw his son approaching, obviously intent to find out about the commotion. Ignoring the dangers for a minute he explained the problems.

"Son, our village is currently being attacked from the air and by Dagur. If we don't hold both of them off then the damage will be intense, especially from Dagur."

Hiccup was confused by one part. Stoick said dragons were attacking? But dragons attacked during the night and there was still light.

"where are these dragons?"

Stoick pointed and Hiccup immediately understood why the dragons weren't attacking during the night. These were the ring dragons! But also, after the dive that had happened in the crowded situation, one of them had Mildew. Hiccup sighed.

"I don't think those dragons are after the village, just Mildew. I should be able to deal with that situation."

Stoick nodded thoughtfully. If Hiccup was right then they would only need to fight off the land invasion. He silently hoped Hiccup was right, for if not, this would be a hard battle.

 **A/N**

 **Hope you enjoyed!**

 **Please tell me if there is something I can do on new chapters to improve the quality! I do feel out of touch with most of the readers of the story and I would love more suggestions!**

 **I really did not know where to end this. I decided to do the fight scene later.**


	12. 12: meeting Dagur with fire and sword

**Hiccup gone half fury.**

 **A/N**

 **I have been stressed while updating recently, reminding myself of my old progress is depressing. So, instead of doing that, I have decided to change how I write, to be less stressful for me and hopefully better for you in the long term. Please tell me how the new style (starting somewhere in this chapter) affects my story.**

 **Update: Den Tunrida asked for a few slower parts of the story, I did what I could, watch out for an easter egg…**

 **Chapter 12:**

Hiccup didn't wait to get out of the village and instead transformed on the spot, shocking many villagers. He took off with a powerful downbeat and sped towards the dragon group.

Finding the dragons with Mildew in tow, Hiccup tried to come up with a plan to get Mildew away from the dragons, he had to because… because of what? Mildew had done nothing good for him since he was young, even when Hiccup had done nothing wrong Mildew would mock him, to gain support from those who believed his principles. Now caught in a dilemma between doing the honourable thing and letting the dragons take Mildew he compromised, deciding to bring back Mildew, after a scare of course.

He overtook the group, turning around and outstretching his wings to bring him to a halt and cause the other dragons to stop too. The Monstrous Nightmare bearing the brunt of Mildew's weight huffed audibly, expecting this dragon to be confronting them for their mischief, which was half true.

Hiccup started off, talking in the dragon's language, letting Mildew wonder what they were talking about, " _So, about Mildew_ …"

" _Yes, we know, we'll return him now. Just wanted a little revenge for his behaviour_ " The Monstrous Nightmare said. Hiccup shook his head, causing the terrifying dragon to tilt his head in confusion.

" _what? Surely you would want us to return him? Do you want us to keep him?"_

The Night Fury morph kept shaking his head, confusing the Monstrous Nightmare incredibly. Hiccup finally explained what he wanted the dragons to do.

" _I want you to return Mildew eventually…_ " The Gronckle was about to interrupt, but Hiccup continued, " _but first I would also like to see some vengeance of my own_." A smile slowly formed on his face.

Mildew was getting more anxious as he heard the various voices speaking above him. He had no control over what was going to happen… except… A grin slowly formed on his own face as he brought out his own dagger; specially hidden, none of the dragons would have noticed. However, the slight shine of the blade notified Hiccup, and the Night Fury charged Mildew as he brought the blade up.

The monstrous Nightmare was confused as to why Hiccup was charging towards him. He didn't have time to evade but, curiously Hiccup slowed down while opening his mouth towards Mildew.

After initially thinking that Hiccup had simply decided just to eat Mildew, the Monstrous Nightmare, and his friends, were surprised to see Hiccup now had a dagger within his teeth. After Hiccup spat the Dagger into the sea, he addressed the dragons, " _Mildew was trying to stab you in the neck with a dagger, I think you can do what you want with him now. I don't think I like people who would mindlessly attack a dragon while I'm trying to reduce violence, you can go now, just try not to hurt him too badly._ "

He let the dragons pull the shocked Mildew away. Wondering briefly about his final decision he re-aligned his wings and gained forward speed back towards Berk. He would check on the dragons later, his earlier wish to find out more about how healthy they were was put aside, now that he knew exactly what they would be doing. Hopefully Mildew would think twice before attacking another dragon.

He once again came to the village, ready to tell Stoick about what happened, but decided quickly afterwards to fly back towards Toothless; for the village would be preparing for war and he did not want to distract his dad. With this resolution in mind he winged it towards the shelter where the two normal dragons would be resting.

He flew lower as he saw the structure ahead of him, flaring his wings slightly to bring his speed down to land safely, in the final moments of descent he gave himself a strip of sand to land on. His feet planted solidly on the ground as his wings began to fold, transitioning to travel on land.

He plodded closer to Toothless, the black dragon looking at him with an energetic happiness. However, as he came closer the dragon seemed to lose energy, not gain it as he had expected. He was mildly curious as the eyes kept watching him; was something wrong? Was Toothless injured? Or worse? " _Buddy, what's wrong_?"

Toothless shook his head, " _nothing's wrong just needed to calm down for a bit, forgot for a while I was meant to keep my emotions subdued_."

Hiccup was astounded, " _but you're a_ night fury! _Aren't emotions a part of being you?"_

Toothless almost looked repulsed as he responded, " _we are driven by a fury, as our name suggests, but we cannot always stay highly emotional, it degrades our fighting ability."_

Hiccup still didn't understand. " _anger is a key part of fighting, surely? I ask again, why would you need to subdue your natural emotions?"_

Toothless sharpened his tone, as though scolding a rebellious infant. " _anger is nothing without reason, if you aren't normally violent then anger can kindle a more powerful flame, and I mean that both emotionally and literally."_

Hiccup turned down his strong curiosity, realizing that the dragon's words applied to him as well. Toothless looked pleased that Hiccup had understood, " _that lesson was unintended, although while you're here, I can teach you some more shot types."_

Hiccup was briefly excited. However, a quick motion from the dragon halted his enthusiasm, before converting it into embarrassment; due to his own obvious mistake. He then approached his next statement with a peaceful mind. " _I would like to learn what you know about night fury shots."_

Toothless once again smiled. His posture relaxed even more as he explained to his… student, what he would learning, " _now that you are calm, let's go through the first; in exceptional circumstances you may find that you need to pierce metal: for a thick-metal-piercing shot you need to allow the shot covering liquid to build up, so that it's strong enough to break through metal, then you need to bring it up as it's still soft, remember there's very little time, and use the edges of your mouth to pull back the edges of the covering. When the covering goes hard, start to fill the middle with propellant, just let it flow into the case. After all that you can open the 'igniter gills' and fire the projectile."_

Hiccup was astounded by the length of the instructions, each step sounded very careful and precise, " _will it take a long time?"_

Toothless shook his head, " _as long as you remember the steps, it can be as fast as your other shots. Watch this."_

Toothless became silent but Hiccup quickly saw the cone shape thrust out of his mouth, solidifying quickly, after barely half a second had elapsed he let it fire into a nearby hill; the hill only shuddered a bit after the entrance, but collapsed as the shot exploded deep inside. A distant yell of, "what the Helheim was _that_!" could also be heard briefly.

Hiccup was silent, no description he could think of could possibly describe how powerful this was. Using flame was a natural behaviour for a dragon, but he could think of no species that exhibited such an arsenal as a night fury, able to create specialized projectiles to suit the type of destruction. His assessment was proven even more apt as Toothless continued, seemingly unaffected by the effects of his recent shot,

" _the next projectile is hyper-incendiary, this one requires a bit of magic, so concentrate heavily on creating as much fire as possible while making the flame. Once that's finished it should be able to light_ anything _on fire, although it won't spread to non-flammable material. It will also eventually die down if it finds no fuel to burn_."

He once again prepared a shot and turned his head to launch it onto the water. Hiccup's initial confusion vanished as he saw flames surround the impact point; their flickering tips burning fiercely on the water's surface. Each small fire somehow burning nothing, yet still producing heat that Hiccup could feel, even being roughly 30 meters away. After 10 minutes of being content to watch the oddity of Fury flame, Hiccup and Toothless finally saw the miracles dissipate, the water slowly returning to its original colour and temperature.

His curiosity lead Hiccup on, and he could only hope that Toothless had more tricks to show him, wonders of the Fury that no ordinary scene in the village could compare to, " _are there any more shots you could tell me about?_ "

" _no. Just remember what I've told you including the need to stay calm, it could come in useful against Dagur_." Toothless replied, still moving calmly.

" _how do you know about Dagur_?"

" _you should know I have acute hearing, Some of the Vikings are talking about Dagur's fleet approaching_." Toothless answered, beginning to move now, wings unfurling in anticipation for flight.

" _So, I guess that your going to fight Dagur then_?" Hiccup said, noticing the Fury's actions.

Toothless gave an amused huff before replying, " _of course. I can't just let Dagur take over this island; then he would find this shelter, destroying it and everything I hold dear, I have to take action against him or face displacement from my new home and friends._ "

Hiccup nodded solemnly, he could relate to the Night Furies words: Berk was home. No island he had seen could rival it; it held natural beauty as well as the complex structures of people. The island belonged to his clan, both literally and spiritually.

Even his father had told him that nowhere else would do; that the people of Berk would rather go down fighting than give up their sacred island. And so, the underlying duty behind these words filled Hiccup with strong determination: he would not let the island fall to Dagur; no matter how difficult the fight may be.

He brought himself from these thoughts and turned to look Toothless in the eyes. His wings flared open and glowed slightly before he addressed Toothless, _"I will fight alongside you, I may have some sad memories here, but it is a matter upon my ancestral honour to defend the island, I may have shied away from battles before, but I will not shy away now._ "

Toothless nodded in understanding, finally allowing his anxious wings to capture the skies, pushing away from his ground-based limitations, and sending his frame sweeping into the air. Hiccup followed soon after, his own launch aided by his thrusters, leaving two slight black scars on the plain sand. They levelled off after getting higher than the trees on the island.

Stormfly saw the two furies take off and was quick to urge Astrid to join the two flying dragons already in the sky. Astrid, however, was confused why Stormfly was so agitated, " _what is it Stormfly? Some prey stray too close or something?_ "

Stormfly was slightly insulted by mistaking her urge to fly with an urge to feed, " _look up, I want to join Hiccup and Toothless_ ,"

Astrid looked up, seeing Toothless and Hiccup, both as dragons, flying over to the sea. Stormfly was briefly hopeful that Astrid understood her need to fly but was completely blindsided by another misinterpretation, " _oh, so you're on a date with them? Stormfly, I understand I don't know you that well but…"_

Astrid was cut off as Stormfly, impatient to get this demeaning description finished, quickly took off without another word.

Perhaps the anxious dragon could have realised the Astrid's own conclusion of her reaction…

Astrid stared blankly at Stormfly depart, before finally broke the gathering silence, "I've heard of love-birds, just not love-dragons," she lowered her voice, then continued in a regretful tone "why does my dragon have to be infatuated with them?" before she went back to the shelter to rest.

Hiccup and Toothless were locked into the determination to get to the battlefield, or at least close by, before the battle started. As such, they didn't notice the irritated Stormfly until she flew, wingtip to wingtip, beside Hiccup. Hiccup turned his head towards her first, thankful of her presence, but curious as to why she was without Astrid, " _Doesn't Astrid normally accompany you? Where is she_?"

Stormfly gave an annoyed huff, which surprised Hiccup, before replying, " _she thought I was in love with you two, I don't think she deserves to come flying with us for that comment."_

Toothless, who had feigned disinterest at the arrival of Stormfly, now became interested; his mouth curling up in a smile as mischievous thoughts ran rampant through his head. He dropped below the group and pulled up incredibly close to Stormfly, interrupting her regular wingbeats, " _I think your Astrid has a point, Night furies are as drop-dead dangerous as they are drop-dead_ handsome."

Stormfly was visibly disturbed by Toothless' words but Hiccup chimed in, irritated that Toothless had interrupted a serious flight just to tease Stormfly, " _quit it Toothless, we're on the way to battle, not a date. Keep your thoughts about Stormfly kept in your head until after the fight_."

Toothless reversed his earlier moves to return to the other side of Hiccup, laughing gently at the annoyance of the other members of this flock. Stormfly, however, looked at Hiccup with admiration, he was happy at first to see she was grateful but noticed an increasing amount of lust present in her gaze; this caused him to seek a position further from the group, thrusters increasing power to take himself outside the awkward situation and into the clouds.

Stoick was the first of Berk's inhabitants to make out the 2 dragon shapes; Deadly Nadder and a Night Fury. They were heading over to the water, presumably to fight Dagur. He kept an eye on them as they passed over the village. Satisfied of their allegiance, he turned to rally the defenders of the Island, they would fight alongside dragons until Dagur knew never to invade again; he looked along the rows of his assembled soldiers and gestured towards the dragons,

"we may be few in number but, by the dragon's aid, the GODS approve our cause! We will turn back this upstart with steel and dragon fire!"

Some of the men were initially confused by Stoick's suggestion that both dragons and humans would bring this victory. Soon they remembered the fear of the dragon raids, and some even began pitying the enemy for a short time, they had evidently incurred the god's wrath.

The defenders of Berk broke up the confusion with a change in structure, the shield wall and _catapult artillery_ were ready to gain the strategic advantage; In fact, the entire area was a hidden fortress, built in a way that attackers could assume that they would have the advantage, but be taken unaware and soon defeated: a gentle hill with small streams with no visible fortifications

To achieve this deception some Catapults even blended into the hill to reduce the enemy's ability to gauge the danger.

Dagur took the bait, a random area of strategic advantage? (everywhere else was pure cliffs, and the harbour was far more protected) He was sure that, somehow, the people of Berk had proven themselves naïve. His initial smug demeanour was broken when Berk unfurled part of its military potential: The shield wall, which initially seemed like one row of people, shifted to reveal a second man behind the first, having stood so perfectly aligned as to remain invisible behind the first man.

The small rivers running through the valley were blocked off by specialist Vikings running and placing stones in them, the resulting flood muddied the ground, slowing any forward movement.

Finally, to complete the psychologically-devastating manoeuvre; one man stepped in front of the Defender's lines. Stoick strode forth as though borne from his own ranks of warrior, He seemed to cause fear itself; each movement flaunted restrained potential, he showed he lead the Vikings; both part of them and yet better than all of them combined.

Far below the surface a Submarine cruised silently. Evo, bored, began, "Are you sure this is where the other U-boats were? All I can see on Radar are a fleet of fishing boats and an Island, nothing on our level.", John was initially disappointed, but replied hopefully, "we'll find them soon, can't let merchant convoys be threatened." And thus, the Submarine sailed on past, ignoring the battle above.

Some of the formerly battle-hungry men of Dagur were now noticeably scared; no man could had told them of Berk's secret defensive potential, for no man had escaped Berk's military might, much to the pride of Stoick.

Droves of men overpowered their boat's tillerman, changing course away from this terrifying island. Although most remained on course; for Dagur hadn't made his army entirely of these weak-minded men…

Stoick kept his position high on the hill, anger towards the invaders incredibly prevalent in his scowl. he managed a slight smile when he noticed some of the ships turning hard before sailing away.

He then observed the remaining ships with interest; how had they not noticed his advantageous position? He was about to ignore the situation as pure stupidity until he got an urgent warning from one of the Vikings near the shore, "Berserker-borne!"

Stoick was suddenly struck with a strange dread. the drug-driven Berserkers, given this nickname for they would be as borne not from a human, but rather descended from another berserker-like creature related to the monsters that would crush Asgard.

Even with his strategic advantage would be far more effective than the normal warriors he could've faced. He regretted that Dagur had somehow found a way to create the drug, even with all literature references of its creation having been destroyed. He could only wait, and hope, that his earth bound defences would resist the onslaught of the Berserkers. He himself lowered his shield and brought his axe to bear; standing solidly like steel itself.

Dagur was contemplating how he was supposed to feel with the progress of the battle. Some of his men had deserted the battle, as well as some of the men garnered from the Outcasts, but he still had his berserkers and even Stoick became fearful after the mention of their name. The chief had calmed down quite a bit, however, and this infuriated Dagur to the extreme, "so he knows my force is berserkers and was fearful; Yippee, one to Dagur! But now he's so placid, can Stoick _ever_ act lively for more than _5_ _seconds?_ "

His anger was cut short as he heard a familiar sound from his travels, although not the one he would have been expecting at this time, "DRAGON! Pull up the armament and shoot it down!" dragons had not been part of the plan, but who knew when dragons normally attacked Berk, at least they would be attacking both… "they seem to be ignoring the defenders," that was weird, dragons normally attacked anything living. Nevertheless, his ships were outfitted with a multitude of anti-dragon weapons, he watched with pride as Grappling ballistae were pulled out of the deck. His armament could easily deal with common drag- "Night…" the lookout said, those words; they were out of place. His world slowed down dramatically. Could he have mistimed the attack? Was night already falling? No. the sun was still at full height, therefore the only explanation could be; "…Fury!" he shouted at the same time to the look-out. He looked up to the skies to confirm his suspicions and found the warning had been true.

The fabled Night fury could be seen Silhouetted in broad daylight, his simple observation was superseded by an intense, primal fear, that sent an eerie melody throughout his mind and spirit without any instrument responsible nearby. A background mental voice came abruptly to the foreground,

'night fury…night fury… Night… Fury…'

'NIGHT FURY!'

Thor had brought a child of lightning into the fray…

And with that a whistling came from the heavens…

 **End of chapter:**

 **A/N:**

 **Personally, I loved writing this story. (as I suppose I might have said before) trying to write the section after Toothless' lesson, which was the checkpoint for me to begin experimenting with a different style, was like writing a truly fleshed-out story. Trying to summon an intense understanding of the character's thoughts, actions and the place of the story all got me as interested in this story as, hopefully, you are.**

 **I would love to learn whether you enjoy the presentation of this part of the story and feel intimately connected if you would like to give suggestions or support, then the comment below is addressed to you.**

 **PMs and Reviews can help this story achieve the perfection you deserve to read. So please tell me your thoughts!**

 **Not a lot I could think of to break up the story. It is** _ **based**_ **as an active part and I don't want to mess with that component of the story**


	13. 13: power ,,, why do the gods hate me?

**Hiccup gone half fury chapter 13**

 **A/N**

 **Hello again**

 _ **Should I say it, or should I not say it… Thor damn it; "TACTICAL NUKE INCOMING!"**_

 **End A/N**

Hiccup had suddenly noticed the invading fleet; after a short break in the clouds revealed the many, armoured ships below. They seemed to have noticed them already, non-siege weaponry being pulled up on deck and aimed. Hiccup, therefore, took this as his only chance for surprise.

He tucked in his wings to reduce drag without losing complete control. While he embraced this attack position he frantically warned Toothless and Stormfly of the impending danger " _LOOK OUT! THEY'RE RIGHT BELOW US!"_ hoping that they got the message soon enough. He didn't see whether they did as he passed through the clouds, the trademark whistle building up as the density of supersonic airflow increased.

Eventually he was through the cloud and could see the fleet clearly. He gauged the distance and began preparing his shot.

Unbeknownst to him, his igniting gills had responded to the fast speed of the dive; now they extended small, aerodynamic frills to harvest the oxygen from the air, channelling it into a small pouch near the back of his throat. As his mouth opened for the shot, the air channelling through his gills was also harvested for all its precious oxygen; which was then put into the pouch again.

This process went unnoticed by Hiccup but lead to a strange occurrence on launch of his first projectile; Hiccup focused on aligning his sight with the ships; a small crosshair showing him the point of contact. He pulled off the familiar process of bringing up his fuel and coating the front. He opened his mouth to fire before the shot raced out of his mouth.

It didn't glow blue though,

Or white, or any colour at all.

It was invisible, seen only as a heat haze that gradually fell towards the ship.

It hit the deck with a small "dink".

The ship had no chance of survival.

The blast left no structural part of the ship intact, and the small pieces that did survive were extremely burned. Other ships in the vicinity were also smashed while others further away had holes punched through them due to the shockwave. It was a scene of devastation; and Hiccup wasn't used to it at all.

He suddenly became intensely aware of the extent of his power, but as a pacifist he didn't want any of it. He pulled out of the battle with every ounce of his being, thrusters at full and wings flapping furiously, ignoring the stares of Toothless and Stormfly who had both followed him. Some of the berserkers fired back, but their enraged state did not allow for good accuracy.

Regaining focus, the two dragons began their own attacks on the offending Navy. Toothless performed shot after shot, not bothering to dive for each one in favour of hitting each while flying straight overhead. Stormfly opted for a straight line of fire that seared through the ships. Eventually, after razing the fleet and now looking for any that had escaped previous attention, Stormfly had to recover due to the exhaustion of her shots while Toothless followed, due to his concern as to Hiccup's departure.

He hadn't seen Hiccup's shot. He only thought that the reason 25 or so ships sank was due to precision targeting. In fact, he was going to congratulate him on good shooting.

Or so he thought…

Meanwhile, Hiccup was on the run. His newfound abilities, his special traits had no meaning if it translated to being a killing machine. He found a place to rest and reflect on the shockingly horrific effects of what was meant to be a stun shot. He had barely put any thought into magnifying its power.

But now many, many ships were down, the original target utterly vaporised.

How? He could feel the small frills that poked out near the nubs on the back of his head. It was a tiny thing with a lot of power. Upon reflection he still couldn't believe that such an innocuous part of himself held that much destructive potential.

He sat in silence for a long time; a great thinker, inventor and planner reduced to a lonely boy, guilty of his crime.

Dagur was also in shock; how had one dragon singlehandedly destroyed most of his fleet? To add to his confusion the second dragon didn't show this trait. Although he didn't have time to sit still and think; the other Night Fury was on the prowl and death awaited those who he found.

Dagur used the tried and tested technique for escaping battles unnoticed; find a little boat.

Now safely away from scrutiny of the dragons, Dagur took in the sight of his destroyed fleet. 50 proud and well-armed ships, now his small rowing boat was the only one that escaped. His shock turned into fury, "Damn Stoick, I was going to win until he used those dragons. I guess I'd better stock up on anti-dragon weaponry because I am not leaving until I take you down. You hear that Stoick?!"

Stoick did, in fact, hear.

He had dropped his initial guard as soon as he saw the devastating first strike; Such Ragnarök-scale destruction was not something he could have attributed to the beasts that sometimes attacked his village.

Stoick even holstered his weapons as the other two dragons appeared, tearing anew into the fleet. He was confused that the initial dragon had fled the battle; wouldn't it have wanted a second strike? But still, no need to fight when the dragons were already taking care of that.

He unloaded a fire-ship of its flammable cargo before boarding it and sailing it into the fray. What he saw was a scene of devastation; each ship having been blown apart before it had any chance to fight. He winced, even a man of his calibre could acknowledge the certain doom that befell these attackers, he felt insignificant against the signs of carnage; of dragon-ridden destruction.

Somehow something survived, Stoick heard a small voice shout with obvious displeasure "I am not leaving until I take you down. You hear that Stoick!?"

Stoick was almost speechless, how had the chief managed to escape the carnage? Eventually, as he came closer, he found out. The chief of the berserkers stood atop a comically tiny rowboat. Stoick turned the rudder before striding up to the bow to greet this challenger face-to-face.

As he came alongside, the chief of Berk showed his strength by cleanly lifting the struggling chief by the head with one hand. As he saw the continuing struggles of his captive he acknowledged him in mockery, "be careful what you wish for. Now, as one chief to another, you've got some _explaining_ to do." He said the word with venom and Dagur knew that he wasn't going to escape Berk without a few scars.

The pure dragons reached the cove. Stormfly went and rested, until Astrid questioned how the date had gone. Stormfly promptly chased Astrid around the cove screaming curses. Toothless was sombre to see that Hiccup wasn't here, so he devoted himself to a search. He lifted himself off the ground before banking to survey over the village, in case he had gone home.

Hiccup finally gained enough control to shift back and leave behind the form of his sorrows. To his disgust the frills, as objects of his current attention, refused to go away.

Toothless had searched the entire village, while the occupants were away, and he still hadn't found anything apart from some buckets of fish (now-empty buckets of fish). He took off again and now resorted to searching the untamed woods, no doubt now that whatever kept him from fighting kept him away from both the cove and village.

Hiccup looked crestfallen on top of the rock, unfeeling; even to the weight of the equipment on his back. Suddenly the sound of wings could be heard, and he decided to flee Toothless, until he could recover from this situation. In his desperation to leave he almost fell off an unseen cliff.

The options were slim, running away from the cliff edge he now found himself on straight into the path of Toothless or jump off the ledge and try to outpace Toothless.

Hiccup chose the latter option, jumping off the edge and pulling out his shield to use as a sled for extra speed when going down the mountain.

Toothless caught sight of Hiccup jumping and came in closer to make contact. He was, however, too late; as Hiccup had disappeared into the dense forest and couldn't be tracked from the air. He flared his wings as he came closer to the entrance, before pulling them in to concentrate on ground-borne chase.

Even over the sound of the shield churning over the ground Hiccup heard Toothless land clearly. He leaned further forward to devote himself to a speed advantage over his pursuer.

He paused his panic a moment as he contemplated what he just thought, ' _am I really fleeing my friend.'_ His mind quickly tried to resolve itself; ' _yes, he didn't warn me about this, he deserves to be without me for a while'_ the persistent voice continued; ' _he's your friend and your guidance, why would you hate him for the one thing he didn't tell you?"_

He re-centred himself, a booming voice of fact quieting the others; ' _every ship we sank meant a full crew of deaths. That_ small thing _is nothing but a killer.'_

' _let him regret this lack of information, for the sake of every person you killed, every death that could have been avoided'_

And so, with small tears in his eyes, he focused his energy on evading Toothless.

Toothless was bounding through the trees, desperate for some contact with his quickly-departing friend. He was especially unsure why Hiccup seemed to be fleeing _him_ , what had he done? One moment Hiccup was fine and now it appears he is trying to leave him behind.

His periphery senses were unable to pick up any helpful information. There was sound but, as fast as Hiccup was apparently going, it was getting fainter.

Hiccup was pleased with his progress, He couldn't see Toothless at all, so he assumed he had out-paced him. But when he looked forward again he got a surprise; another cliff, and this time it led to water.

Hiccup had no choice, trying to bale out would kill him at this speed, flying would be unwise, since Toothless was faster than him. He decided to run the gauntlet again and let the shield carry him over the edge.

A sickening feeling of no ground underneath before he fell again.

Hiccup subconsciously pulled out and manipulated his wings until the shield touched down on the slope, Hiccup then pulled his body weight over the side to cause the shield to dig into the rock and slow his descent. Eventually, he reached the pebbles at the foot of the cliff where he pulled back, slowing his movement to a standstill.

Now, with no option to keep on sliding and with flying still being unfavourable, Hiccup decided to blend in with a shadow. He crept into a little cave and transformed to utilise the black colouration of the Night Fury to his advantage.

Toothless was still following what little sound hint of the shield scuffing over soil when it was replaced by the sound of airflow, metal on rock, before eventual silence. Fearing the worst, Toothless felt another burst of energy that propelled him to the cliff edge where the sounds had originated. He looked down and saw nothing dead on the pebbles below, thankfully, although this meant that Hiccup was still lost.

He glided down until he was also on the beach, scanning nearby for where Hiccup could have hidden. He looked in a cave and saw green eyes; a problematic weakness for hiding Furies, as well as the slight blue glow of the frills.

Seeing the obvious desire to not be found, Toothless pretended to miss him, before going out of sight and bringing out his own version of the frills.

He had pre-charged them beforehand with quite a lot of power, which he now used to disguise himself with invisibility. He crept closer to the cave as Hiccup anxiously waited for a sign that he was leaving.

Hiccup found Toothless' glance unsettling, he had almost found him, and may succeed if he looked again. He kept a careful watch, to see whether Toothless had decided to return, he kept seeing nothing. Eventually, he reasoned that Toothless must be searching the entire shoreline. He relaxed and drooped into a lying position, but as he did so he felt something brush past him.

There were a few moments of hysteria, a few of him calming down, before Toothless revealed himself with a paw on his rump. Hiccup backpedalled instinctively and found himself cornered by Toothless as he did so.

Now, with no options left to him apart from hurting Toothless, Hiccup sighed in defeat.

Toothless came closer, his face like a parent who thinks their child is acting suspiciously. Hiccup welcomed this suspicion, he deserved it for such rash actions.

Then Toothless finally, thankfully, broke the silence. "Why are you running? I see nothing wrong with you."

Hiccup motioned to his frills, glowing blue and pulsing slowly.

Toothless wasn't particularly disturbed by the vision "those are just your frills, are you scared that your appearance will offend me."

Hiccup gave a small snarl at the misunderstanding, before giving him the truth. " _these_ frills _are not for me. I went down and prepared a stun shot. Do you know what came out instead? A MASSIVE blast that destroyed many ships and killed even more people. I wanted to save the island from invasion, not kill countless people BY ACCIDENT, and these frills are the cause of that, why didn't you tell me before?"_

Toothless, now with the extra facts, paled.

Hiccup had a special version of the Night Fury mane (the name for the fully deployed frill) that was optimised for destruction; he would have found other effects, but this would be the most apparent.

Toothless himself only had the one for stealth, " _I'm sorry. I didn't know. I had merely assumed you were a stealth variant, not attack. If I had known beforehand I would have told you."_

Hiccup processed this information slowly. ' _so Toothless wasn't to blame for that tragedy, he didn't know about my condition.'_

Toothless then revealed a fortunate factor, " _you were lucky that your frill wasn't fully extended, I can see, both from the damage caused and your current state, that it was only one tenth of the full power; also that the power increases out of proportion to the frills deployed; so 5/10 is far more powerful than 5 times the power of 1/10 frills."_

Again, it took Hiccup time to process, " _are you saying that there's more power than that, more destruction? How much would, say, 5 out of 10 frills be?"_

Toothless sombrely continued " _that high, Berk would have been eradicated"_

Hiccup couldn't believe this, Ragnarök paled to this extent of destruction, he felt astounded that Furies had this much power. For all he knew, Toothless could have simply destroyed the entire village years ago, instead of limiting himself to catapults. " _so why didn't you, all those years ago, how Berk is standing when I've heard from you that you could take it down with one shot."_

Toothless took this explanation with reluctance, being forced to reveal his emotions about destroying his best friend's village. " _Firstly, I am not an attack kind, I am stealth; we have no super-powerful shots, but we can make ourselves invisible."_

Hiccup accepted this naturally, since the dragon had proven this to him when he snuck into the cave.

" _Secondly, I could… never do it, even if I had the power I am like you; a pacifist. When war comes I try to minimise casualties, not create them. I am seen as weak in the eyes of other dragons for the exact reasons, and it is an embarrassment for me to reveal it to you in this way."_

Hiccup consoled his unhappy friend with an affectionate embrace, which Toothless, initially stunned, returned. Hiccup then gave a verbal assurance that this was ok, " _I don't care that you can't kill, maim and destroy like other dragons, in fact I'm happy about it. I don't want you to feel so guilty about something I adore about you; your empathy."_

Toothless had never been on the receiving end of this kind of praise, so he was rendered speechless as the kindness of the act settled in ' _how could I have been lucky enough; the only night fury I know of to have such a companion.'_

After a few minutes of blissful embrace, Hiccup and Toothless parted. Although Hiccup now had his curiosity piqued by something he remembered from earlier; " _what did you mean by 1/10 deployed, is there more?"_

Toothless nodded, doing this for the sake of Hiccup, " _I can show you, do you mind me pulling them out?"_

Hiccup gestured for him to proceed, so Toothless gently dug a claw in behind the first set of pods (another name for frills) to pull out the next. They slid out on a barely-noticeable track until they surrounded half of the entirety of his head neck, causing a lion-like mane to appear.

Hiccup became lost in his new discovery, " _wow, they're so… beautiful, so strange to think of their intended purpose."_

Toothless agreed, but continued " _they're not fully open yet, I need to pull out the top ones."_

Hiccup could do nothing but feel Toothless now push a claw into the crevices alongside the first two, pulling out a new set of pods that covered the top of his neck. Hiccup gasped at the feeling of the new muscles, for retracting and extending the frills, were triggered.

Eventually the entirety of his head was covered, Hiccup took in the feeling, " _how does nature create this? I have never seen such examples in any other dragons!"_

Toothless nodded, now illuminated by the strong glow of Hiccup's 'mane' but urged Hiccup to put them away, " _that's enough for now, you are currently the most powerful weapon on Earth and so I would prefer it if you put those away, unless you accidentally sneeze and kill us all."_

Hiccup took in this comment with embarrassed speed, he had forgotten just how powerful his earlier attempt had been and could understand Toothless' concern about being close to such a dangerous being. He used his newfound retraction muscles to pull the frills safely into his own head.

Toothless visibly relaxed. _'why does he even have this? the gods that he refers of must have a really twisted sense of humour to give such a hellish ability to a pacifist.'_

Now, with both parties happy and with Toothless forgiven, they headed back to the cove.

Meanwhile Snotlout was not happy. He was _still_ regretting losing in the ring, especially to Astrid in dragon form, she had almost taunted his inability.

Now he decided to show both of the shifters that he was tougher: he put on his own armour, went to the forge to get a bigger hammer, and finally, most importantly, he went to have a tattoo to prove how cool he was.

This was probably not the best thing to do in a village with a duo of tricksters; one look from Ruff and Tuff, and Snotlout woke up the next day with his monstrous nightmare tattoo changed to a terrible terror.

He sighed and got ready to face the laughing faces when he got to the ring.

Astrid still hadn't learned her lesson; Don't think that Stormfly is romantically engaged. This was mainly since Stormfly never told her to stop such suggestive comments, instead Stormfly pursued Astrid with vigour as soon as she let her thoughts slip.

Even now, as she lay down next to a sleeping Stormfly she gave a brief comment about her current rest time, "goodness girl, Toothless and Hiccup sure tuckered you out." Her assumption about Stormfly being asleep was disproved when her tail spikes flicked out.

She ran all the way to the village, before the disgruntled Stormfly broke off the chase.

Gobber had returned to the empty ring after being released from the defence force. He somehow knew that Hiccup was the dragon that took the devastating shot and resolved to find out how, now that dragon training was due to begin.


	14. 14: reunion,,, of sorts

**Hiccup gone half fury**

 **A/N:**

 **This story was the inspiration of a harem story I did in response to a review by Arraia. The M-Rated story isn't on site; thanks to my mother, but it I can send it to you if you have an account (e-mails for guests are possible, but I recommend against it)**

 **Do** _ **you**_ **have a specific or ambivalent adventure in mind for Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, etc on this story? If so, please PM me.**

 **N.B: story tip; A Night Fury plasma bolt is** _ **extremely**_ **hot. If you look at acetylene flame colours, then at images, you will find that the coldest blue flame is ~3150'C (~5700'F) and the hottest, oxidised one is ~3480'C (~6300'F). I feel the need to tell you this because *spoiler* in this chapter I have been thinking about how Hiccup could block a plasma bolt, but with something that hot it's far harder to evade without causing damage to yourself. To other writers who read this; take note of just how hot the flame is.**

 **Bold for dragon speech. I really hope I remember to keep this going.**

 **End A/N**

 **Chapter 14:**

Hiccup, although comfortable under the watchful eye and caring nature of Toothless, had to go to the dragon ring by the will of his father. He didn't like leaving the cove but having abilities that made him the revelry of the others was admittedly intoxicating.

He told Toothless of his plans before starting a fast-paced, flame-driven rush back towards the ring.

Toothless took in the sight of the flame paths gradually dissipating, before taking off towards his favourite vantage point of the ring; a position he used for curiosity of the human's customs as well as his protective nature. He even found an agitated Stormfly below him, whom he told to come along, **"Hey Stormfly, you want to come look at the ring with me?"**

Stormfly gave a quick nod before flying up to follow behind him.

Seeing the annoyance still on Stormfly's face, Toothless wondered what the cause was, **"Stormfly, has something upset you?"**

Stormfly gave an intelligible curse before answering **"Astrid is** _ **still**_ **talking about me and you, in terms of relationships. It's almost entirely intolerable by this point. She should be thanking me for giving her such a gift and, instead, now thinks I'm emotionally invested in both of you"**

Toothless responded with an edge of wisdom; **"She is stubborn, and I think that her previous hatred for dragons is making her suspicious of all our affairs."**

Stormfly nodded, agreeing with that summary; **"That's true, I thought all females in the village were simple, house-dwelling humans until I saw her; she has a fiery resolve that I hadn't seen before…**

[She paused, recollecting her hidden assumption on the direction this conversation would take]

… **Wait, why aren't you trying to flirt with me now? You seemed awfully invested earlier on."**

Toothless felt his flight shudder slightly as the memories of his previous treatment of Stormfly came back; now he had deep embarrassment, instead of the cheeky, childish acceptance he had before. Eventually, after further contemplation, he began, **"I don't know for certain. I think it's because I had to comfort Hiccup after the attack on the ships, now I feel far more mellow than before. I do still like you, but I'm embarrassed to talk on such matters."**

Stormfly wasted a few moments as she took in the scene of the wise, caring alpha that she would have expected from Toothless. She then shook those thoughts to one side and started, **"I like you too Toothless, and especially your friend Hiccup; just don't try to flirt so brazenly next time. Astrid… She'll recover eventually and, although I disagree with her comments, I genuinely care that she gets better."**

Toothless nodded, the action providing to be the finality of their current conversation as they tipped their wings in preparation for landing on the peak that looked over the ring.

Astrid did another quick check to see if Stormfly had followed her into the village, before turning back and accepting praise from the other residents of Berk; residents who didn't know about her ability to shift and now gave her the praise that they would have given Hiccup if he wasn't known as a shifter.

She sighed; in both relief and acceptance of her own confusion. She knew that if the village turned her into a monster for her abilities then she would lose her prestige, but staying quiet felt like betraying the entire island.

She really threw these thoughts away as waste; her fight-honed behavioural response refusing to take on the thought of betrayal.

Instead she would persevere in the ring as she always did, and make sure the only stories of her success would be about her in human form; heck, she could try to fight _solely_ in human form and maximise the praise given to her… natural…

[her memories fiercely combated her present mind; saying that her increased ability was due to the transformation she undertook]

…strength.

Such confusing thoughts, but she resolved them with the quick conclusion that she would settle her problems in the ring; like she had always done before.

Her focused walk was only interrupted once; by Ruff and Tuff trying to scare her in preparation for the coming session. Tuff started,

"Hey, Astrid, you want to try beat _us_ in the ring? Because we've got a surprise for you so large that your mind will _explode_."

Astrid sighed at this pathetic show of power, before throwing Tuff to the ground, "I don't know what you're planning. But, I know that I'll beat you anyway and you shouldn't threaten _or_ bother me in any way unless you want to experience pain."

Ruff was unperturbed by this show of dominance, and let her devious voice carry through as she informed Astrid a little more about their intended surprise, "I wouldn't be so _sure_ there Astrid. This stuff is _designed_ to _kill_ dragons."

 _This_ had raised the game.

Astrid was struck by horror at the plan the twins were enacting; they weren't just planning to hurt Hiccup (Astrid was thankful she wasn't going to be using her dragon form today), they were trying to _kill him_. Ruff and Tuff took this opportunity to run off before she could get her bearings.

Hiccup, now unknowingly a target of a murderous plan, was at the point where he stopped his propulsion; scraping to a halt right in front of the entrance. Gobber was there already, happy to see Hiccup's swift arrival, "hello there, lad! I would say have a good time in dragon training, but that's to the teens that will be training against you so… good luck anyways!"

Hiccup took this compliment with a smile; it was strange for both of him that they both knew _he_ would be the subject of this training session, except if Astrid joined.

The others came soon, apart from Astrid most regarding Hiccup with respect, but Ruff and Tuff looked strangely off, like they weren't scared at all. He found it unsettling until he reasoned it as part of their usual trickster's behaviour; the reliable source of most of their actions.

Gobber let the assembled party inside; where most of the teens armed themselves, Hiccup walked slowly over to the other side of the ring and the twins seemed to prefer just to hang out around the cages.

Gobber asked them why, in his gruff yet cheerful way, "what are you two doin' over there? I thought ye knew by now the weapons are o'er here!"

Hiccup transformed into his Night Fury form before observing the twins with suspicion. Gobber casually accepted this fact and began final preparations, "Okay. So, Hiccup, ye ready?"

Hiccup nodded and lowered his body close to the ground in preparation for the fight.

It was at this moment that Astrid arrived.

She was breathless, but determined to deliver her message, "HICCUP! LOOK OUT FOR THE TWINS! *gasp* THEY'RE TRYING TO KILL YOU!"

All of the people present took a step back in shock, all except Ruff and Tuff; who unlocked the cage.

The door opened wide, and soon the innocuous shape, like a wheelbarrow, could be seen. Most were confused at this puzzling mix of expectations and reality, but Hiccup was astonished at their machine; shifting his vocal chords to human to shout at them; "The Mangler? Are you serious!?"

Tuffnut drawled out his reply, even while his body was racing to aim the machine, "indeed so, pesky Hiccup, you've _ruined_ our plans."

Now Hiccup was in trouble, but also ready to take on the new threat. He shifted his vocal cords back to draconic and let out a furious roar at the two troublemakers. They aimed it onto him and let fly.

Hiccup's instinctual response was to intercept it with his own shot.

The bola cleared the barrel, weights spreading to their fullest extent, rotating swiftly; stretching the centre wide open to catch the unfortunate victim. The victim's response flared as it ignited in the oxygen of the air, before pushing itself faster towards its target; trailing blue flakes of unburnt fuel.

The two opposing projectiles met; dimpling the bola's centre while the plasma bolt's tip fractured. The cracks opening in the shot heralded the destruction sequence of the bolt; each opening spreading flammable liquid into the proximity.

Eventually this splatter of liquids would react as well, and the bola was consumed by the fiery trails from the fragmenting core. Each of the ropes binding this flimsy shot now reached their flash point; breaking apart quickly. The burning, useless ends of the ropes letting the stone weights fly out; missing Hiccup.

He had easily repelled that attack, but as soon as he refocused his attention on the mangle he found that the twins had deployed a smoke screen. He cursed and quickly switched his vision to heat sensing; letting the heat from the plasma blast fade before finding the twin's new positions.

Everyone around them was getting worried, Gobber especially. He was charging down to stop the battle himself, but he would still be too slow.

Hiccup could now see the twins' new positions and a plasma blast could easily take them both down; but that would risk hurting or killing them without being able to see the area around them; to judge where he could put the shot so that the twins were in the shockwave and not the explosive heart. His only choice available was to talk them out of it. He tried it, hoping that they could see reason, "Why are you trying to kill me? I haven't tried to hurt anyone on this island outside of the ring!"

Ruff was not so easily swayed, but hinted at another drive pushing her on, "you think that we're just murderers? We had dragons in the arena and dragon killing machines from a drunk night! Surely you can see why we'd do it, Mr 'I want to shoot down a Night Fury someday'"

Hiccup was momentarily stunned at the recollection of such a crucial memory; _he_ had done this… against _dragons_. He may have changed, but the human part of his mind couldn't argue with that logic; disarming itself as it tried to reason it out.

The twins, however, had not decided to duck out of the fight and now crewed the second machine they had stashed in the back. This one _was_ a dragon killer; an automatic arrow launcher that Hiccup had designed with enough power to pierce through scales. Hiccup's normal mind was inoperative, but his mind's rush for survival created an alter ego that would stay alive.

The arrow volley began and Hiccup vanished, replaced by an aggressive psyche that would only gradually gain emotions beyond anger. He unsheathed all his pods [Toothless gasped at this action; he himself had held back since he hadn't known what was in the fog] before they curiously detached from his neck; spinning to a full speed that left a circular halo around him as he prepared to shoot down each projectile.

The first arrow was within a meter when the first answering shot came; a plasma bolt that was insignificant by itself, only made extraordinary when the second shot came out; less than half a second later.

The psyche held his place, performing his duty of keeping himself safe as each arrow came. Unbelievably, he accurately intercepted each arrow; disintegrating them with each plasma blast. Eventually, yet without lacking the dramatic nature of such an event, all of the 200 arrows in the machine's magazine had been spent.

Now the two parties stared at each other; unimpeded now that Gobber had stopped to watch and Toothless and Stormfly looked on in shock. Ruff and Tuff were baffled how Hiccup had managed to defeat one of his own weapons; with an unseen trick as a bonus. Hiccup was not Hiccup however and tracked the offending pair; waiting on the next surprise.

The twins obviously thought they were in danger now and hurried headlong to their last-ditch weapon; a massive cannon with extreme power; Hiccup had originally intended for this to be a no-lead instant killer; a target he had before shifting his focus to capture.

The two somehow knew how to operate the complex machine, and soon it pointed its large round muzzle straight towards the shifter.

The Psyche, now finding the name 'Nótt Hiccup' after strange circumstances demanded it, could find no solution with firepower; his memories from Hiccup told him that this cannon would kill him, even with an increased rate of fire. He could do no more than wait and calm in preparation for his death.

Finally Hiccup had enough and regained consciousness; letting Nótt disperse. His next action was to throw off the layer of calm he had while his body had been under Nótt's command; carrying forward his rage with the promise of death driving him.

He charged at the cannon, trailing purple mist, even as the twin's panic fired the shot. The massive, heavy ball ploughed its way into Hiccup; or, more accurately for the scene, ploughed into a purple mist.

Hiccup's form was broken apart before expanding into a cloud; like a candle flame extinguishing. The expanding mist caught most people off guard. The twins, however, were merely disappointed; Tuff showed this with an annoyed comment, "We get a large cannon, we fire it at him and he just disappears? I guess it could just be how furies die."

Their suspicions were interrupted when one end of the cloud reached behind Ruff and Tuff before forming into a Fury with a claw on both of their throats.

All solid parties were silent, letting the newcomer sit with his inbuilt weapons poised extremely close for an effective death if he so desired. Astrid was not one to sit silently as the dragon murdered the twins, "You stop right there and get those claws away from those necks. This isn't you Hiccup, and I don't want it to be you."

'Hiccup' stayed deadly calm, with the claws still in place, "I am not the Hiccup as you know him. I am Nótt Hiccup; created to defeat the threats to Hiccup's survival. Now that I have those two threats here I see no reason to accept your deal."

Astrid was speechless. This was not the Hiccup she knew; the expression was not moved at all.

The real Hiccup was reforming right behind her; gathering his bearings before tackling Nótt to the ground, "don't do this; they may have tried to kill me but I will not become casual murderers like them."

Nótt smiled at his assailant, "Ah, Hiccup. I have no quarrel with you, but I worry for your continued safety; Are you sure that you'll be secure with _them_?"

(While they were having this conversation, many dragons were coming towards the area; Toothless and Stormfly, but also others.)

Hiccup was confronted with a person who really didn't want to fight him, heck, Nótt liked him a lot. The entire affair was seemingly pointless and Hiccup wondered if this really was the case; asking Nótt if he was serious, "I can defend myself against them. Is that it? your only motivation was to try to get rid of the threat?"

The Night Fury he lay on merely snorted; slightly affected by the weight on top of him, but he didn't care, "Of course, I was concocted by your mind as a defence reflex. I have no other reason for action now; apart from that Monstrous Nightmare that I can see over your shoulder."

Hookfang had seen Ruff and Tuff's attacks from a better angle than Toothless and Stormfly; he was ready to burn the assassins of his liberator. His first spurt narrowly missed the twins as they ran away; the burning, sticky liquid illuminated his angered face from below.

Now it was the bystander's turn to join in defending the strange pair, even though the twins had attacked Hiccup, they thought of it as a game and didn't really hate him.

The first in were Astrid and Gobber; unwilling to let fellow ring-fighters die. Astrid shifted and put her body in the way to fend off the flames. The stream of fire splattered off her body; causing Gobber to pick up a shield to protect himself.

He saw that Astrid was otherwise engaged and so rushed in himself to extract the siblings. Luckily, Astrid saw this and covered the retreat; treating the people below to a lovely look at her posterior as she kept her upper hide pointed towards the offending dragon.

The Monstrous Nightmare never abated; he saw Astrid as a hindrance in the way of him killing the would-be murderers of Hiccup. Astrid winced at the strength of the barrage; she hadn't been expecting such intensity.

Eventually Hiccup had to step in verbally; shaking off his renewed surprise, **"Hookfang! Stop it, you're going to hurt someone!"**

His intense roar reached Hookfang and the flames stopped abruptly. Hookfang turned to face Hiccup; unsure suspicion present in his eyes **"why would you care about the twins? They used death-machines on you!"**

Hiccup sighed. Hookfang was right; why should he care? But he stood by his pacifist side; refusing to yield to thoughts of revenge and anger **; "yeah, I know. Don't get me wrong; I value my life. But, they act like this all the time and I'm used to it. The other reason I'm so insistent is because you've got both Astrid and Gobber in your line of fire; both of whom I am rather fond of and so I would like you to stop flaming them."**

Hookfang backed down with a face of remorse, **"sorry about that, Hiccup, I thought they were on the killer's side…**

[he began to worry about the continued trust between him and Hiccup]

… **do you forgive me?"**

Hiccup gave a slightly surprised chuckle; this sane answer caught him off guard after a violent confrontation, before issuing his predictable answer, **"seriously? You're worried about that? Okay. Yes; you are forgiven."**

Hookfang smiled in acceptance, before standing up straight and waiting for Hiccup's next words, like a student awaiting his master.

Hiccup was pleased that the hectic situation had finally calmed down enough for him to think straight. He was impatient to get back to typical arena activities and so turned to Gobber; "Gobber, can we start this training session again? Without all the threats to kill me this time?"

[he looked disparagingly at the twins as he said this]

A strange, yet distantly familiar, voice came to him, **"Can I blow them up?"**

Hiccup turned to see Barf filling up the arena with gas from behind Ruff and Tuff. At the same time Nótt gave a pessimistic quip, "does _everyone_ want to kill you?"

Hiccup didn't respond to that comment, instead focusing on stopping the situation from escalating again, **"Barf! Belch! Why do you have to do this, my throat's going hoarse from reminding you and Hookfang not to kill people who I've known for a long time!"**

He stopped for a short time to regain his breath; his dragon chest inflating and deflating quickly.

Barf wasn't impressed; not at the person who spoke it, but rather the argument itself, **"Then who** _ **do**_ **we kill? We want to keep you safe Hiccup, and I don't care if you** _ **forgive**_ **; these boys firing projectiles at you is not what we consider safe."**

Nótt sneaked in a quick "I don't think explosive gas is safe either", Gobber ran from the surrounding vapours as Astrid wondered what to do next; she wouldn't be harmed by the blast, but wouldn't really be able to help defend Ruff and Tuff either; she eventually settled on trying to get away like Gobber. Ruff and Tuff were slightly paralysed from being taken from one deadly situation to another.

Hiccup was misdirected by the assurance that they had wanted to help; Hiccup liked people who took care of him and so his answer was premature, "that makes a lot of sense…"

He intended to finish that thought, but Belch had heard enough;

" **Exactly, now let's blow those two killers to smithereens!"**

He started sparking and came closer to the main area of the gas but was held back by an unseen force. Toothless then appeared out of his cloak; holding Belch's head in place with his paw, "Belch. Don't do it."

The sparking head knew that he'd found a more determined opponent and withdrew again; preventing full blown chaos for the third time since the start of the session.

Hiccup was finally able to contemplate the chaos that had transpired; he couldn't handle it and soon fainted heavily onto the ground.

Gobber, out of range of the gas, gestured towards the fallen Hiccup,

"Now _that's_ all we need. Random dragons making the subject of today's lesson faint. I guess we're just going to practice on targets until then."

Snotlout was, rightfully; for once, confused of Gobber's subdued reaction; considering he had mentioned 'random dragons' in his announcement, "But there _are_ dragons! Two Deadly Nadders, a Monstrous Nightmare, a Terrible Terror _and_ two more Night Furies. Surely we can still practise?"

Gobber guffawed, alarming a few people; who thought he'd gone mad, but then explained himself,

"the problem, Snotlout, is that there's a small issue of most of them being _out there_ while we are _in here_. If you can capture them, then you can train against them."

Snotlout pouted, before recognizing the exceptions to that rule,

"what about the Night Fury and Nadder in the ring? Surely we can train against Astrid and… whoever it is."

Nótt growled, before shifting his vocal cords to remind them that he was, in most ways, a copy of Hiccup,

"The name's Nótt, Snotlout, and I wouldn't try to anger me if I was you; I know a lot about your past treatment of Hiccup and it would be my pleasure to give you some retribution."

[he brandishes his claws as he says this; looking at Snotlout with a piercing glare]

Snotlout gulped, before remembering he was supposed to act tough. He grabbed a shield and his hammer then adopted a fighting pose. The Ruff, Tuff and Fishlegs soon joined him; using him as a leader.

One surprising addition was Gobber. He joined the group with some words of explanation, "I can make _one_ exception to teaching out of the ring; you have a Night Fury and a Deadly Nadder to fight. You're going to need some help."

Astrid, worried about their chances against the veteran Gobber, turned to Nótt for reassurance; reassurance he, thankfully, gave in draconic tongue, **"Don't worry, friend Astrid, we can take them on for Hiccup's sake."**

Astrid was unsure what Nótt meant by that, replying in the same language, **"Hiccup's fine at the moment, what are we doing for him?"**

Nótt was strangely cold with his reply, **"I have access to Hiccup's memories; I know that he thinks you are more than capable of protecting yourself and others; I say that since I expect not only to prove that you can protect him, but also prove that Hiccup is right; trusting you to fight far better than even Gobber."**

It was an indirect form of compliment, which Astrid took; casual acceptance, however, was not the only thought in her mind. She now could see Hiccup's trust in her through Nótt's words; that comment both increased her respect of Hiccup and empowered herself in the coming battle. She turned back to Nótt with determination, **"We can win this."**

Nótt was equally optimistic, "with me and you fighting together; they can't win."

They shared a smile for a few moments before entering the fight.

 **End of Chapter.**

 **A/N: the first part of the chapter that I broke down from 6000+ to more manageable chunks. There is an imbalance, so the next chapter will be shorter, but will be coming the day after I post this.**


	15. 15: Freyja's curse,beginning of the end

**Hiccup gone half fury**

 **A/N: second part of my 50k chapter. End A/N**

 **Chapter 15.**

Meanwhile, Hiccup's consciousness was elsewhere; drifting through ethereal darkness that couldn't possibly be a normal dream state. Eventually he was proved right as Freyja came to him, "I came here, while you were unconscious, since I needed to remind you of your place; you are below me and I have a final say in your life. Gaining friends and finding new opportunities was _not_ what I had in mind when I cursed you. You were meant to live your days in horror and isolation. Now I see that you've changed such fate and I give you a simple choice; return to your human form, stripped of powers or continue to suffer any punishments of my choosing."

Hiccup was terrified of the goddess' wrath; he hadn't meant to enter this kind of obligation and now a highly-respected goddess was angry with him. He was about to plead for his safety when another voice came, "I think I heard 'curse' in that threat of yours, Freyja. I would advise you not to use such words when referring to those I have decided to gift."

Freyja refocused her anger on this new person; "So, 'the god of Night' or 'Night' as you prefer to be called by the _other_ gods and goddesses. You shouldn't dare to discuss magic; my speciality. You have no voice here. Anyways… [shifting her attention back to Hiccup] you seem to have picked up a huge range of abilities; I seek to scale them back. You may name 3 abilities you would like to keep out of…[she checks quickly]…Shifting Human to dragon and back, dragon speech and understanding, Increased strength, fire magic, fire intensifier, enchanting, invisibility, Frills and Fury. I suppose the last ones are creations of you, Night?"

Night nodded; they had been two of his favourite magical projects to work on… until Freyja had cursed the pods with increased damage to put him in a bad light.

Hiccup took the opportunity to choose out of the options presented; feeling aweful now that he was subjected to the will of a powerful goddess, "Um… transformation, obviously; I like my dragon side, Dragon speech and understanding; since Toothless is a good friend of mine and uh…"

He was stuck on the third; the choice could make or break his life going forward. Surprisingly, he didn't consciously approve the third; a small whisper guided him as he spoke in an incredibly subdued tone; "and take or add to that list as I wish,"

Freyja was blind to the fact that only 2 abilities had been chosen before; she took this final muttering as his acceptance and simply said, "deal," before recognising his words; stepping back in shock.

"perfect" a mysterious voice laughed. Freyja and Night looked around in shock; wondering where this voice had come from. Hiccup merely stared dejected at his feet; he believed he had blown his only chance of the best deal.

Eventually the unsure gazes found their answer; Loki stood out of the darkness, "I am pleased to see that face Freyja. I didn't expect such a highly renowned goddess to be fooled so easily."

Meanwhile, in the ring, Nótt and Astrid were coping well; forcing the offenders into a defensive position. Even the ferociously pushed attacks by Gobber were repulsed as he was forced to deal with enemies on both sides; the dragons had transitioned from staying together once they realised that Gobber was taking all the shots to his shield easily.

Gobber was still not the one to give up so easily against his age-old foe and hoped that his trainees could prove their worth, "I can't defend on two sides! Ruff, Tuff and Snotlout; guard my sides and back while I charge these beasts!"

They awkwardly got into position as Gobber began running towards the Night Fury.

Nótt held firm; bleeding off his charging momentum with precise strikes to his shield. Even with this counter-fire, Gobber was still advancing; he got into range, where Nótt couldn't use his plasma blasts without blinding himself, before dropping the shield in favour of his hammer.

Nótt didn't seem to care; instead he gained a widening smile until Gobber felt a talon pushed gently into his back. He turned to find Astrid standing casually with her talon extended towards him while the rest of the teens huddled against a wall. Gobber sighed, before rallying the teens again, "Come on! You can do far better than _that_! Your struggles against the Nadder were _unheard_. Form up here and we can try that again."

Freyja was unsure why the two had decided to come, but already her mission to bring some kind of revenge on Night's strange hybrids had failed, "You should be very careful of who you're messing with. I'm powerful and so is my husband. If I can't take back the powers voluntarily then I shall take them all back forcefully."

It was Night's turn to be rebellious, "You shouldn't have dared to mess with a just bestowment of powers in the first place; you gifted them to me as payment for my help against the band of rogue witches 242 years ago."

Freyja smarted at these words; a part of her wanted simply to ignore such allegations; using her power to merely force her will on them. She couldn't though; a small piece of common sense telling her that it was right; she should leave Hiccup alone. She accepted the common sense and let Hiccup keep his annoying powers. She alleviated her anger on Hiccup and held fast; now in stoic silence.

Night and Loki had been expecting some more fight, but were pleased that she wasn't going to use her position to enact revenge. Night continued with a respectful tone, "thank you Freyja, cursing people under my supervision is unacceptable, but at least you have the decency to recognise that…[he turns to Hiccup]… An now I hope that you will be left alone. Keep in mind she still has stripped most of your abilities; so add them back before expecting to use them."

Hiccup agreed and soon felt himself leaving the strange place, but not before a telepathic warning form Freyja "I am not done with you yet, I will strike again."

Hiccup was stunned, "I've done nothing wrong!"

Freyja stayed determined, "you disrupted the natural order; Night Furies were not meant to use their magic to create hybrids that may bring peace; The magic was meant to increase their destructive potential. The only survivors of such destruction, the ones that could hold on, would have earned their place in Asgard."

Now the truth had come to light; Hiccup wasn't to blame, rather a steadfast belief that only the strong could belong in Asgard. He found himself accepting this fact, although also vehemently disagreeing with it; war had never been a part of him.

His current thoughts then drifted off to Night and Loki; both had helped him, although both were hated in Viking society for various reasons. Such thoughts, against the societal norm, confused him until he continued; filing them away until later.

Finally, after an exotic adventure, he woke up to the sound of fire on steel. He perked up, fearing that he was in the midst of a battle, before remembering he was in the ring and the battle would be a practise. He slowed his breaths and took in the scene around him; Astrid and Nótt were showing great skill while keeping the attackers at bay.

Surprisingly it was one of the contenders in the battle that spotted him first, not the dragons spectating outside; Astrid shouted out her discovery to Nótt and Hiccup was immediately glad he had kept the speech as one of his basic abilities; knowing that her speech would have sounded like roars.

The realisation brought the battle to a halt. Gobber was one of the first to reach the boy, citing the reason for his fainting, "I don't think I've ever seen a soul so affected by battle before, [Nótt growled; seeing the obvious reference to cowardice] Are you alright now? any bruises or cuts from your fall?"

Hiccup gave a simple shake to show that he hadn't been harmed, although he still was affected by the meeting with the three beings; so he had to tell Gobber, "Gobber, I'm fine physically. I would, however, like to talk to you about what happened while I was unconscious; it was far more than 'fade to black'"

Gobber was visibly glad that Hiccup was okay, before nodding; showing he was willing to listen to him.

He was unprepared as a few presences rushed at him as he talked to Gobber. First was Astrid, talking while hugging him, "Hello again, husband!" Hiccup was about to question the relevance of their engagement agreement before he saw the smug look on her face; she had planned on unsettling him.

Hiccup smiled, greeted her back, before feeling another set of arms around him, "Hi Hiccup, are you okay?"

Hiccup turned to meet Nótt; who showed concern in his face, before responding, "Hi Nótt, I'm fine, as I've told Gobber already."

Nótt bristled at this comment, "Hiccup, you know it's my duty to protect you."

Hiccup retreated from his eager attitude as he remembered how serious Nótt was, "sorry."

Nótt changed his attitude unexpectedly quickly; going from irritated to empathetic, "don't worry Hiccup, I'm not mad. Anyway, what do you want to do now, stay here or go back and rest?"

Hiccup took almost no time to decide, "stay here, it's fun to be able to use my abilities in safety,"

Snotlout and the twins obviously didn't like this, "yeah, using them on us until we can barely walk."

Hiccup blushed as he recalled the 'guinea pigs' of his experiments; he even felt pangs of sympathy for his previous treatment, "you're right, I can change my tactics so it's easier for you."

Snotlout readily agreed, "sure, so how are you going to make it easier?"

Hiccup needed only a moment to deliberate; letting his refreshed mind sort out the problem, "I'm going to limit my shots; 3 shots and then only hand to hand."

Snotlout accepted this, retrieving good weapons for the start of another session. Another difficulty was found when Hiccup was barraged with requests to become his 'guardian'; each of the ring dragons gave their desires, even Speedburn agreed to fight claw and fang in his defence; Nótt agreed heartily, Astrid followed suit and finally Stormfly and Toothless gave their own appeals.

This was a good emotional boost for Hiccup, but also unfair on the attackers. Hiccup, sadly, could only deny the requests to join him in the interests of their opponents. So, he did something unexpected and asked all the dragons to be the opponents, while those with human form (including Nótt) be on the same team.

Toothless and Stormfly surprised the others with a last-ditch attempt to stay on Hiccup's side; revealing themselves in human form wearing only basic clothing, before Hiccup's response, after his initial shock, persuaded them to stay in dragon form, "Woah! Toothless, Stormfly. The Viking form is cool, but we still need more balanced teams. Perhaps you can switch sides; if the competition turns out unfair."

They reluctantly accepted and shifted out of their unique forms (Toothless having a muscled, dark body while Stormfly had a bluish tint and a light but strong body). Hiccup recollected himself and prepared for the fight ahead; pulling his custom shield out of its holster.

Gobber, still in the ring and still in the fight, nevertheless gave the order to start. As soon as the dragon's movements could be discerned a highly noticeable bias could be seen; Hiccup, and by extension Nótt, were simply ignored by most dragons; apart from Toothless.

Seeing their lonesome attacker, Hiccup checked on the rest of his team before changing posture to absorb any strike from the Night Fury and advance. He was still in this position when an unsettling thought went through his mind, 'Increased strength was removed, wasn't it?'

He gulped and began worrying anew; his reduced muscle strength probably wouldn't be able to withstand the direct hit. Toothless calmly centred his aim on Hiccup, reasoning that the boy was capable of deflecting such a blow, before firing his shot.

The shot straight towards Hiccup's centre of mass with incredible precision, even with it only being half hearted. Hiccup shouldered the shield harder and hoped it would be far easier to counteract then he thought.

He was wrong.

The shot blew apart on the shield, cracking apart in it's usual manner. However, the explosive spread over the shield and erupted in flame; complementing the original strike's kinetic power with explosive thrust. Hiccup couldn't hold on and the shield was taken out of his hands with the immense recoil.

The fighting around them stopped for a while; dragons first taking note of Hiccup's form, before looking suspiciously at Toothless.

The suspected Night Fury was bewildered; he hadn't expected that to happen and the looks from the other dragons were unsettling.

Mercifully, Hiccup recovered and excused Toothless before the situation escalated, "Calm down, it wasn't his fault. I underestimated my ability to block, and I paid for it."

Toothless was glad when the suspicions were lifted and went to gave his thanks to the recovering Hiccup. However, the boy was still reeling; both from the power of the strike and the rapid change in attitudes from the other dragons. He didn't know why they were so protective; so he asked them in genuine curiosity "why are you trying to protect me? I've never done anything for you."

They took immediate offence to that statement, "you released us, let us go wherever we please; you've done a lot for us."

Hiccup nodded respectfully; this was completely logical for him, so he could put it to rest. But, there was one exception; Toothless was never freed. He'd never been helped by Hiccup in any way;

Why did _he_ care?

"Toothless, Why would you look after me?"

Hiccup wanted to say more, but he let his bewilderment speak volumes to everyone in the ring; even the trainees present, with almost no knowledge of his relationship with Toothless, suddenly had to know about the forbidden friendship.

Toothless didn't give such a clear answer, but at least gave it in the human's language "There are many reasons, Hiccup. You know one at least; that I thought you were special because you didn't have the bloodlust of other Vikings."

This comment about 'Vikings' was not ignored. Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and even Fishlegs (weakly) had faces of contempt for the undignified way he had portrayed the Vikings; after all, they believed that it was the dragon's bloodlust, not theirs. Snotlout was the leader in vocal opposition; a position he had taken many times before.

" _Us_? _We have bloodlust!?"_ Your species have actively attacked us from the first settlement! And should I believe that you, a member of such a violent species, would prefer a random Viking based on his _peaceful_ side!?"

The dragons knew the harsh truth of the matter, and so they felt right to be insulted. Although, while all these dragons were angry, it was Toothless that responded.

"You don't know why we come to Berk; it is not a personal preference, but rather forced upon us. We may be actively attacking, but we are not a violent species as you crudely suggest."

"but, even with that assurance; we are attacked by droves of dragons. Or we were, before Hiccup's intervention, but they may start again. What could possibly motivate you to do an attack?"

Toothless was briefly halted with memories of the sworn secrecy about the Nest. However, he pushed them aside with the knowledge that those around him may be able to help.

"There is a massive dragon inside the Nest; an alpha as you might call her. She… controls us; she can force us to do whatever she wishes without our agreement or even our conscious thought; The first time I remember seeing the village was the same night I met Hiccup, although he's told me that I had attacked the village for far longer."

This was unsettling for the teens. A being that could carry influence over others was fine, but complete control? Locked out of their own minds!? _That_ was abnormal. Fishlegs, for that moment, could speak with both curiosity and fear of the dragon; "The dragon manual never mentions such abilities. How large is _she?_ What else can she do?"

Toothless sighed, "I barely know. The first and only meeting with her was when I was very young, just before losing consciousness until now."

A sobering statement.

Fishlegs continued; becoming more worried by the minute, but still holding the desire to know more, "So, you had parents? What happened to them?"

Toothless had nothing to give Fishlegs. Like he had said before, he didn't know. "I can't say, I have no memory of what happened."

As he said this, the Night Fury was uncharacteristically down. He had devoted so much of his recent times to staying with Hiccup that the memory of his parents was only now hitting him with full force. Everyone, without exception, was shocked to see the legendary dragon laid low with what looked like depression.

Snotlout, surprisingly, suggested a simple solution, "why don't we just take her down? If she doesn't control anyone then no-one will go through the same treatment as you."

Astrid was suspicious of the aforementioned surprise of the solution, "That's strangely unselfish of you… what are you hiding?"

Snotlout had to take a step back from his heroic standing to admit to his crush that he had been a bit more self-centred than that, "Okay, it could be _slightly_ connected to becoming a hero! It's what _I_ deserve!"

Astrid was happy that she had teased the truth from Snotlout, Toothless was disappointed with the boy's resolve, but Hiccup was more interested in the truth behind Snotlout's original statement.

"I think he's right; stopping the queen from controlling dragons would release the dragons from their slavery _and_ prevent further attacks on Berk. I, for one, agree with this plan…

[his confidence retreated as he realised he would be asking for their opinions]

…does… does anyone else agree?"

 **End of chapter.**

 **A/N**

 **50K achieved!**

 **3000 words achieved for this part of the split chapter. I wasn't expecting that.**

 **HTTYD 1 ending in sight! (although, not exactly the same one obviously)**

 **Hiccup is not to become over powered; this is the reason I removed so many abilities before. His ending here is to emphasize that he needs support from others. I will also be working on more vulnerabilities that Hiccup has to contend with; for a start, Freyja's dislike.**


	16. 16: A helping hand, Village encounter

**Hiccup gone half fury.**

 **A/N**

 **Dialogue… so much dialogue; consider this a break from the action (mostly).**

 **Please do not consider this a 'normal chapter' for its word length; this happened under special circumstances and that's why it's over 5300 words long.**

 **End of my exams! It's time to celebrate by posting this.**

 **End of A/N**

 **Chapter 16.**

He got an overwhelming, terrifying round of agreement, for him anyway, from those assembled around him. He took a while to recover after the sudden sound and then left the area, hoping to get outside where he could think or at least calm down.

After leaving the immediate proximity he rethought his strategy; he was pretty stressed, so he resolved to go further; shifting into his dragon form so he could reach the hill overlooking the village.

His departure was noticed, and he gained a following from all those that could follow him in flight, as well as a concerned Gobber, who was allowed to ride Stormfly by Astrid.

Toothless lead by the virtue of having the fastest flight, while the Gronckle narrowly avoided getting mobbed by the remaining teens seeking vengeance.

Thus, in his new location and as he wondered about the future, Hiccup heard the landings of Toothless, the ring dragons and Stormfly; almost the same people present in the ring, with the notable exception of Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout.

Astrid was the first to come up to him. She jumped off Stormfly with casual grace and walked over.

"So, any reason in particular to flee the ring?" She said curiously, leaning on her axe as she stopped.

Hiccup realised she was in the mood to talk; a shame considering he had been seeking silence. Nevertheless, he shifted back into his human form, "I need time to think. A lot of things happened while I was unconscious and now I've got to let them settle."

Astrid was surprised to find out about this, but then continued, "is this the reason why Toothless could knock the shield out of your hands?"

There was a brief cry of **"that was an accident!"** from Toothless, before he hesitantly became silent again.

Astrid turned abruptly, before acknowledging it was just Toothless trying to apologise. But she still needed an answer.

"Yes, I don't want to get into the specifics of what happened; it gets a little bit… supernatural after a while, but all you need to know is that for a short time, it's just me and the only thing I can do is shift and understand dragons."

"That's still quite a lot for you to work with." Nótt stated, surprising the group as he decided to enter with absolute stealth.

Hiccup was happy that someone supported him, although technically Nótt was himself, "Thanks Nótt."

This brief distraction did not stop the rest of the group from wanting to ask him questions, especially the ring dragons who hadn't seen him for a long time; Toothless was actually caught off guard as the Nightmare pushed past him,

" **What happened in the village while we were gone? Are they annoyed?"**

Hiccup was pretty sure the villagers were; they did not take kindly to anyone, even Mildew, being kidnapped by dragons.

"Yes, next time you should try _not_ to kidnap the villagers first." He said sarcastically.

There was a round of laughs from the crowd, excluding Gobber who was just confused. The Nightmare was slightly too prideful to acknowledge the sarcasm,

" **I… apologise; Mildew was just too hated for us to let him go."**

Hiccup realised his mistake.

"I was joking, I mean, don't kidnap villagers, but I'm fine with Mildew."

Gobber raised an eyebrow, which Hiccup saw.

"Yes, Gobber, he just hated everything about dragons, and I try to have peace with dragons, is this surprising?"

Gobber mulled it over for a bit, before nodding in acceptance. With the blacksmith satisfied, Hiccup returned his focus to the Nightmare.

"So, about Mildew; what happened to him?"

The giant dragon mulled it over it, his gigantic face emphasizing the subconscious movements while he tried to remember.

" **He's secure; we found a hole to hide him in. It's nice to have him there, but it's a pain to feed him."**

Astrid laughed at the hilarious position Mildew had found himself in while Gobber kept watching, absolutely unaware of what was happening.

The conversation was progressing nicely, but he remembered, with a grimace, that he had wanted to talk in silence. Toothless picked up on his feelings and came over.

" **Hiccup, what's wrong? Is it Gobber? Are you not friends?"** Toothless said with curiosity and caution.

The attention was comforting to Hiccup, and Toothless' quick attempt to rationalise his expression gave him a small sense of mirth. But his suspicions weren't right. He leaned in to keep his conversation discreet; wary of the surrounding people.

"No, it's more the fact I want to be alone for a while; conversation's fun and all, but I want somewhere quiet." Hiccup whispered, hoping Toothless would understand.

He did. Although, unknown to Hiccup, now that he knew his problem he would try to fix it. With a lightning-fast movement, that surprised Hiccup without the aid of his previous heightened senses, he pushed his head between Hiccup's legs and tossed him onto his neck.

Hiccup was about to wonder about the reasoning behind this but was interrupted when Toothless' pods started glowing and then his head disappeared. Immediately afterwards, Toothless began running and then took off with a shallow climb.

It was only once in the air, in the relative silence of flight, that Hiccup understood Toothless' brilliant plan; no-one else could follow them and Toothless could go anywhere.

Eventually they reached a place where Hiccup had never been but, more importantly, no-one knew about; a side of the island with steep slopes, but also a nice beach. Toothless touched down on the fine scree and let Hiccup off, grinning with glee as he congratulated himself on his plan.

" **Now it's just us here, should be perfect for you to cool off** " he said cheerfully, thinking this had been the right thing to do.

Hiccup took a look around the scenery but settled on Toothless quickly; he didn't mind his presence much but alone meant _alone_ , not having your closest friend nearby.

"are you going to leave me now? So, I can have this time to myself?"

Toothless' shoulders slumped and his eyes narrowed with distaste.

" **You're pretty ungrateful; I got you here and I'm willing to help you…"**

And then a grin spread on his face as he thought of something to irritate Hiccup in return,

"… **You lonely fishbone."**

Hiccup froze with the at the strength of this quick wit; that comment struck hard after having so little contact. Toothless broke down in laughter as he looked at the state of Hiccup.

"Please don't say this time's going to be spent with me listening to your insults."

Toothless laughed even harder for a moment, as he thought about how much fun he could have, before calming down again.

" **Don't you worry, it's important that you get some time to think; you lost a lot while you were asleep."**

Hiccup did a quick thanks to the gods for making Toothless so kind and then agreed.

"Yeah, I've lost a lot of my abilities, so now I only have shifting and talking to dragons; not much."

Toothless was a little disgruntled; he was a dragon himself and Hiccup said that being able to transform into a dragon wasn't much? _Ouch._

" **You can do a lot with a dragon form; I think you're just being pessimistic since you lost some powers."** Toothless muttered, his body slumping slightly in accordance to the disappointing reminder he had to give.

Hiccup thought on that; Toothless, as his specimen of a 'perfect dragon' (although he would save that view for a time when it could make Toothless laugh) was pretty powerful himself. Why would he need special abilities to call himself special?

However, he hadn't had these abilities forever; perhaps that was why?

"I don't think so; I've just gained so much since you first… blessed me I guess. Before that, I was just a weakling in the village, worse than a nobody. As I gained abilities I became more confident in myself and now I feel like I've lost something dear to me."

Toothless accepted this; he remembered his thoughts when he saw Hiccup for the first time; the adorable, helpless twig. Now, Hiccup was far more potent; he could get things done that no other Viking could, but he was still that twig, underneath it all, and twigs tend to break easily.

Perhaps, for the sake of this fragile human in front of him, Toothless' best actions would be those of encouragement and assurance.

" **You've gained a whole lot more than you think; your dragon powers were just the start, now people in the village respect you; they still do. You could build friendships and more with other people…"**

[He paused, to bring attention to the lack of anyone around them]

" **Yet you push them away. You're so focused on whether or not you have powers that you forget about everything else you have."** Toothless finished, waiting for a response from Hiccup.

Hiccup felt the comment about his friendships especially hard; again, he thought about how few friends he had, how few he still had. There was one part of his mind that felt particularly irksome at that moment; a part that told him to ignore Toothless and pretend he was more interested in the scenery for fear of interaction; the grey of the cliffs and the matching colours of the volcano-formed scree.

As soon as these tendrils of control came over Hiccup, he quickly pushed them back; this was a battle he was not willing to lose.

"I can't, not yet. I've never been sociable with humans before, and now it's still hard to accept that I can talk without people ignoring me."

Toothless let Hiccup's words settle a bit, looking away for a bit as he thought. It was saddening to him that Hiccup had such difficulties; he didn't deserve them, and he didn't want his first friend (since he could barely remember being under the queen's rule) being socially recluse.

" **You have to get over yourself; you're a human and you have to get human friends. Dragons are great, but you still need help from your own kind"** Toothless said, stating the obvious.

Hiccup finally gave in; he would show Toothless the willingness he was waiting for.

"Well, I'll try. I may not become friends with everyone… but I'll do my best." Hiccup said hesitantly.

Toothless smiled warmly, happy with the knowledge that Hiccup had listened to him.

" **That's good to hear. I wish you the best of luck with that."** Toothless replied, with heartfelt devotion.

The notice had passed, and so Hiccup wanted some actual time to himself.

"Toothless? I'm sorry to ask about this, but could you leave me alone to think?" Hiccup asked carefully.

Toothless was happy to oblige now, content to watch him and think about how nice it was that Hiccup had returned to his original behaviour, the one from when they had first met. Walking a few paces away, he sat down gracefully and watched as Hiccup sat down as well, before a few minutes of silence fell.

Once Hiccup allowed himself to relax in the darkness of a clear mind, he found himself confronted with a weird view; the darkness was there, but also a list of 5; 3 outlined in green, 2 in white. There was writing in two of the three green outlines, and only after reading them did Hiccup find out what they were; descriptions of the powers he had requested from Freyja: transformation and speech.

"I see you've noticed my little arrangement for you. So, what do you think?" Freyja asked with some malice present in her tone.

Hiccup needed some more explanation behind what exactly had happened, but the fact that Freyja was behind this was not good.

"You want me to prove myself, for Valhalla apparently. Do you not realise that my whole life has been about proving myself? About being a warrior destined to die for Valhalla?! I was given a chance by Toothless to get over that, to bring peace and forget about the dragon hunting traditions of our people and _you_ ruined that! _you_ have put me back to square one; forcing me to 'prove myself' against my wishes! Are you so blind that you can't see that?" Hiccup came back, anger presenting itself as he recalled the painful quest of his younger life.

Freyja's face of smug, cruel happiness changed to a deep scowl. She had never had a mortal so unrestrained with his anger.

"You should not be talking to a goddess with that tone; back down or be punished…" she threatened, but Hiccup wasn't so willing to abandon this chance for retribution.

"No; you have made sure to make my life a misery and somehow you think I wouldn't mind?! Damn you to Helheim, until you learn not to mess around with mortals for your own amusement!" Hiccup retorted, gaining a blue glow as his rage intensified.

Freyja was almost as angry at this point; he had his chance to back off and he didn't.

"And why do you think your opinion matters so much? I am a goddess, an overseer. Your opinion does not matter to me and gives me incentive to punish you; like this!" she said as she summoned up a yellow magic bolt, the punishment infused in the projectile unknown.

She chucked the bolt, only to have it's yellow diffuse and make Hiccup's glow stronger. She muttered out a curse to ancient magic before preparing multiple ones.

Hiccup saw her distress and began advancing, not even flinching as she continued into a barrage; every single shot of hers just increased his energy.

Eventually she had fallen over in his mindscape; too terrified of her lack of power. She was now at his mercy and, by the blue lightning he was radiating, she had given Hiccup sufficient reason for retribution.

He stood over her, utterly powerful and with rage in his eyes. But suddenly it dispersed for a moment, leaving Hiccup in his normal state and with a much calmer behaviour. To her surprise he even extended a hand to help her up.

She stood up by herself in the interlude, suspicious of Hiccup's sudden shift; the person in question just shrugged at the ignorance before talking.

"I don't want to be enemies with anyone Freyja. You've treated me badly before, but I hope you can change."

Freyja switched from her fear back to her scowl. She couldn't see immediate danger and her subconscious was _still_ urging her to dominate this mortal; put him in such a terrified state that he would be willing to carry out her commands.

"You seem to expect that _I_ would want to beg for forgiveness. You are completely wrong; it doesn't matter that you have the curse of ancient magic on your person, you are a mortal and you should learn your place.

Hiccup's expression immediately soured as her arrogance persisted. However, he saw that she was unwilling to negotiate and left while giving a warning under his breath,

"You can either let me go or, as the dragon's book says, 'Hide and pray it does not find you.'" Hiccup muttered, hoping to god he'd had some affect; he may not be acting calm, but hopefully he was still being diplomatic.

Freyja laughed.

Hiccup turned around and attempted to go back.

"Do you want to know more about that list you saw?" Freyja said in a mocking tone, utilising the secret to her advantage.

Hiccup stopped immediately and gave her his attention, albeit still burning to depart.

"I see I've got your attention. So, your list defines what you can and can't do; there are 3 slots that are permanent and two that are interchangeable; the purposes of which are to limit your abilities, lest you become unstoppable."

Hiccup listened carefully, wary of the new changes, until the final few words; the implication of the warriorlike dream of berserker resilience was too far removed from Hiccup's normal personality.

" _Unstoppable?_ I know I've said you don't know me, and this just proves it. What makes you think I want to be unstoppable?"

Freyja huffed in irritation; previous fear almost entirely gone in preference for the traditional distain that she held towards the lower classes. This gesture was the final straw for Hiccup, who had now entirely given up, for the moment, the idea of trying to get through to her.

He dispersed the vision to return to the astonishingly vivid shore with Toothless (after being confined to a monotonal mindscape). Toothless was right up in his face, worried by the trance Hiccup had gone into after entering the mindscape. Hiccup jumped at the sudden proximity and Toothless took this chance to tackle him in an embrace.

" **You were gone for so long! I thought you had gone into a coma,"** Toothless started, happy to have his worries disproved.

Hiccup smiled warmly in response to both the sight and the actions of his dragon friend.

"Thankfully not that. Although I did have an encounter with Freyja." Hiccup replied with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

Toothless picked up on the anger Hiccup felt towards Freyja and his face fell as he thought about what the being must have done to deserve Hiccup's contempt. However, he still didn't know what Freyja was.

" **Who's Freyja? I want to know, lest he affects you in the future."**

Hiccup smiled for the support, thankful for the age-long affection Toothless gave him without question.

"She's a goddess who seems to care quite a lot about the abilities I have. She keeps on rambling on about how I 'shouldn't be in Asgard' even though I really have no will to go there."

Toothless was slightly puzzled by the names he mentioned but resolved that they were unimportant.

" **So, she thinks you're something you're not? I don't think she'd be the first."**

Hiccup gave Toothless an exasperated look as Toothless revealed his vague understanding of his past.

"Why can't you stay supportive?"

" **Because-"**

"It was rhetorical, sorry, you don't need to answer that. Anyways, she's trying to limit what I can do; forcing me to abide by a list."

Toothless slumped slightly at the former part of the sentence, not expecting the abrupt nature of the response, but immediately re-summoned his energy for the latter.

" **A list? Please expand; I may know a lot of things, but you're currently beyond what I've experienced."** Toothless replied, slightly squinting as he tried to figure it out himself.

Hiccup caught himself as he remembered that Toothless hadn't heard about the list.

"Sorry, she gave my abilities specific slots; permanent or temporary." He said, accompanying it with gestures.

Toothless nodded before he noticed the time with a random glance.

" **Hiccup, night-time is almost upon us. I don't need the sleep but, from what I know of your species, you definitely do."** Toothless informed Hiccup, returning his gaze slowly from his distraction to look Hiccup back in the face.

Hiccup scowled in mock indignation.

"Sure, sure. Whenever you're ready we can go and let me fulfil my time on my species' critical flaw."

Toothless' face lit up as he revelled in the mockery.

" **Keep that up and you'll earn yourself a licking; don't say I didn't warn you."** He said as his inhuman mouth easily amplified his smile. However, he slightly faltered as he reminded Hiccup of their earlier conversation.

" **Pleasantries aside, I still mean what I said earlier; you need other friends apart from me. And perhaps you need to remember about going after the queen."** Toothless said with a soft, but slightly threatening gaze towards him. Hiccup nodded quickly, giving them reason to finish the talking for now and get back to the shelter before the sun fell below the horizon.

Meanwhile a village group had been set up, following the surprise kidnapping and the transformation of Hiccup; the dragon-hating inhabitants found no difficulty in ignoring the chief's opinion in favour of belittling Hiccup and getting ready for an assassination of the 'inside threat'.

Few things could be said about this, otherwise normal, group: around 30 in number, mostly men and, of course, they were all distrustful of the dragons: inside and out.

At the same time a group mentioned earlier was beginning to understand that Hiccup wasn't coming back. Gobber was the first to leave, having far less reason to go after him than the others, and then Astrid went to the shelter; followed by the other dragons who were curious of where she was going.

They would meet Hiccup by the virtue of having the same destination.

The only named dragon, apart from Toothless, not a part of this group was Nótt; he had followed Hiccup's mind and had privately watched the conversation unfold while adhering to his self-imposed duty of keeping Hiccup safe.

He met Hiccup as he was coming back, but neglected to tell him about his spying, preferring that he felt comfortable about talking to Toothless in the future; he had agreed with Toothless about Hiccup's friendships and so he endeavoured to let him be comfortable.

Stoick was elsewhere again. His absence was not due to a lack of interest in Hiccup, but rather the requirement to punish a certain navy commander who thought about attacking Berk.

The retribution had been long and deserved, especially after the use of the berserker drugs; a war-crime no matter where one was in the Viking archipelago. Indeed, Dagur was lucky that Stoick hadn't given him away to a far less understanding chief for punishment.

Hiccup passed by the large assembled group at the shelter, giving a slight bit of extra notice to Nótt before finding his bed and going to sleep.

His choice of location, coupled with the loyalty he had gained through some of his action, lead to him gaining a large accompaniment of companions in his beds; with a pair of rings ranging from Astrid, Stormfly, Nótt and Toothless in the middle and the ring dragons outside that, mostly outside the reach of both the furs and the roof, although they barely minded.

The night fell across these different, but linked groups.

In the morning there was a bustle of activity in the village, but not at the shelter; the members of the anti-Hiccup group dispersed from their night-time meeting place and Stoick came out of his meeting with Dagur to continue dispensing his normal chiefly advice while the latest threat to his rule lay behind bars. He contemplated finding a hobby to satisfy his night-time instead; since the dragons had stopped attacking and talking to Dagur had become tiresome; especially since he was far too mischievous for his own good.

As the chief wandered he was greeted with suspicious eyes as the anti-dragon villagers rued him for bringing up a boy who liked being a dragon hybrid.

He noticed this and began to wonder just what was going on; surely the villagers accepted Hiccup for what he was; his son who not only didn't wish anyone harm, had helped them win in an invasion with no casualties; surely this was enough to earn him some respect? Even Stoick himself conceded as much. He kept walking, although intensely worried about what they could possibly be keeping secret from him.

As the dawn progressed, Hiccup finally got up, only to immediately lament his choice to go straight to sleep; many bodies lay around him, snoring contentedly; among them Toothless, Astrid and Nótt. He decided he would have to be especially careful while slowly creeping through them and did so while remembering the events of yesterday; wincing slightly as he remembered the encounter with Freyja.

After many steady steps, Hiccup finally got out of the rings of bodies and took a deep breath of the cool air outside. He was about to make his way over to the village, alone, when a hand tapped him on the shoulder.

"Good morning, Hiccup! Where do you think you're going?" Astrid said in a friendly tone, although the anger she felt towards Hiccup's desire to depart came across subtly as well.

Her loud and chirpy voice was enough to start awakening the other dragons and Hiccup made sure to let her know he wanted to leave before they came to their senses.

Thus, she and Hiccup went away from the shelter, taking a heading towards the village as a suitable destination. When they got there the reaction was even worse than it had been for Stoick, and it was all aimed at Hiccup. There were no final, summative attempts at violence, but people kept their hands on their weapons while around him and gave him dirty looks.

It hadn't been so obvious to Stoick, but it was obvious to Hiccup now; people in the village hated him for what he had become, gaining a resentment for his existence. He sighed in exasperation; an action that confused Astrid until she recalled how everyone had treated him.

"I can't believe it either; it seems like _everyone_ hates you for just one reason." Astrid said quietly, sympathising with Hiccup's ongoing struggles to have a good social life.

Hiccup shrugged it off quietly, "I hope I can get their trust at some point. At the moment, though? Extremely unlikely; I am well aware I am seen as their enemy, no matter how uncomfortable that fact makes me feel." He said in a sad tone.

Astrid felt intense pity in that moment and gave Hiccup a strong hug; gaining the attention of a few viewers who found another target. "Hiccup, you don't deserve this. I am sad to admit how little I knew about you before, but now I do, I'm sorry I can't do much apart from comfort you."

Hiccup gave a small, thankful smile in response; returning the hug briefly, before continuing on, wary of the villagers' gaze, "I'm sorry I couldn't bring myself to talk to you as well; it could've solved both of our problems. I promise I'll be better in the future," he said, in a serious, but happy tone.

Having gotten past their emotional interchange, Astrid was now wondering why they were even here; knowing that Hiccup probably wouldn't have come for the attention. "Is there any reason you wanted to come to the village?"

Hiccup nodded in the affirmative; he had some business to do here, even with the village seemingly against him. "I want to try planning how we're going to free the dragons from the Red Death. It's a favour I owe to Toothless and the other dragons; they help me so I've decided I must help them too."

"And you have to help them, in the village specifically, why?"

Hiccup's expression didn't waver; his purpose was still clear.

"The blacksmith's; I have a feeling that this battle will require some machinery." Hiccup said.

Astrid was unsure of this strange behaviour; surely Hiccup wasn't planning on creating some kind of dragon killer?

"What kind of machinery? You can't seriously be making a dragon killer while trying to make peace with dragons?" Astrid said, confusion clearly evident in her tone.

Hiccup quickly shook off these allegations, to the relief of Astrid.

"No, definitely not that. You're right; I know making any kind of 'dragon killer', as you put it, will most definitely enrage the queen. So, I would rather make something to defend myself; I'm going into that place with no real armed protection and I don't think I'd last 5 seconds before the queen roasts me alive, SO I'm going to need some kind of protective cover, as silly as it seems."

Unbeknownst to him; the final permanent slot was filled as he said the last part. A purple mist rapidly came into the air and hardened into strong metal around Hiccup, much to his surprise. Astrid was initially worried but began to laugh gently as she finally noticed the humorous aspect of his predicament.

There were a few shouts of bewilderment from the inside as Hiccup was suddenly cut off from all the light in the room and a few bangs as he lost his balance and hit the walls.

It took him a while to get back to his feet and disperse his creation, where he found Astrid still laughing, making him blush sheepishly.

"Oh god, you must think I'm a total klutz now." Hiccup said, clear embarrassment shown on his face as he regretted his actions in front of the shield maiden.

The shield maiden had a good laugh at his expense but forgave him.

"Don't worry Hiccup, I know you've gone through a lot… _But,_ it's still funny; next time create something like that in the _Forge_ , not on yourself." Astrid said, with mockery and Hiccup groaned with the realisation that this was yet another thing she could tease him about now; especially after he'd acted so determined.

Astrid, however hilarious she found Hiccup's mishap, suddenly lost that emotion as soon as she realised that they were still in the village. Fearing for Hiccup, not herself, she pulled his arm forcefully; pulling him off his feet by accident.

After helping him up and apologising briefly, Astrid kept talking.

"Hiccup, it would be wise to get out of the village as soon as possible; we don't have any reason to stay and everyone's acting suspiciously, like they want to kill you or something. Also, why are you so weak all of a sudden? First the ring and now here, I thought you had the Night Fury's strength?"

It seemed like her simple words had more consequences than she originally intended, because Hiccup was aware of something changing in his body as the magical curse restructured itself. In moments he was suddenly aware of his feet becoming steadier as his muscles strengthened.

"Wow, something about what you said changed me; it's like the curse… realised it had gone wrong!" Hiccup said in disbelief, already imagining the possibilities of this.

Astrid, however, was not really in the mood to chat about the possible resurgence of some of his previous powers; she was more worried about getting out of the village as soon as possible. So, she pulled Hiccup again, urging him forward.

"We need to go NOW Hiccup; the longer we spend in the village the more chance there is that the others have prepared a trap." Astrid said, with a serious tone mixed with a tinge of empathy.

Hiccup hurried along after the push, letting Astrid know that he was ready to go.

With the two now attempting to escape from the, mildly threatening village. However, Astrid's fear was found out to be true as, on the way to the outskirts, they were stopped by a dense group of Vikings who quickly saw them. One of them alerted others to their discovery and soon they were surrounded by Vikings.

Seeing the situation, they now found themselves in, Astrid stumbled on something in her stress; then quickly arranged a plan with Hiccup.

"Hiccup, doesn't Toothless also have those frills?" Astrid said, with the barest hope that this would help.

A few moments later, Hiccup gained three sets of them as the magic once again shifted. Astrid was surprised that it had worked, but there was still the problem of the surrounding Vikings (less so for her sake, since she knew she could defend herself, but more so for the pacifist Hiccup)

"Okay, isn't there an invisibility one? I would use that and escape." Astrid whispered, conscious of accidentally letting the Vikings know their plans.

Hiccup nodded before spinning up the appropriate frill set, disappearing in seconds. A slight sensation of heat went across Astrid's front and so she reasoned that Hiccup had used his nozzles to get away.

Now it was just her and the Vikings, and she hoped they would leave her alone…

 **End of Chapter.**  
 **A/N**

 **I've finished my exams, finally, and now I can put together this and send it to you. It's been a pleasure to celebrate in this way and I hope you like this chapter too.**

 **End A/N**


	17. 17: A skirmish in the village

**Hiccup gone half fury.**

 **A/N**

 **I have noticed and been informed about how ridiculous the double plot twist of extreme power to nerfed power has been. Sadly, it now establishes Hiccup's relationship to Freyja, Loki and Night. If you are sensitive about this, try to think of it only as a nerf; ignore the suggestion that Hiccup would get unlimited power. Careful recalibration will have to occur, I'm still not happy with the current implemented concept, but I'll need to come up with a better system of magic for him (I mean, I could always imply there's some relation to touching/ ingesting something that 'explains' this, like they do in other books (I'm looking at you, "The waking fire" and that series as well as Harry Potter) Next stop, Hiccup takes drugs for superpowers? (jk, I'd never do that, if you really want to believe in that stuff, imagine Hiccup is wearing something of 'mythical power'; it isn't actually in the story, but whatever works for you.))**

 **End A/N**

 **Chapter 17.**

Allowing a short moment to congratulating herself on her idea, Astrid then turned to the incoming villagers.

Astrid didn't want to show that she was a shifter, not yet; their hatred may be bad enough now, since she was in league, but she didn't want to push them further by revealing herself as one herself. She picked up an expression of shock, as much as it pained her inside to do so, so she could act surprised.

"What?! Where did he go?" Astrid asked, hoping they would take the bait and disperse.

Unfortunately, they didn't; the main prize had escaped but, as far as they were concerned, there was still one left.

"Don't think you're going to get away, disgraceful Hofferson; we saw how you talked to Hiccup like… he, that monster, was your _friend!_ You're not going to get away with siding with the dragon devils." One of them announced, in a manner similar to accusing witches.

Astrid realised that the crowd wanted _her._ Now that she wasn't trying to pretend to be normal, Astrid brought out her Nadder's tail; still keeping her normal human limbs, since she was used to them, but having the tail in case.

The Villagers hesitated briefly at the sight of such a weird appendage, but it gave rise to even further hatred towards her as demon-spawn.

Not seeing the point of standing around much longer, the rogue villagers charged towards Astrid.

Hiccup pushed himself away from the conflict as quickly as he can, hovering above the situation to observe. He'd hoped, like Astrid had, that she would be let go from their suspicion. But, to his surprise, they kept coming, eventually charging at her.

He wouldn't let his shock stop him much; he had to help, lest Astrid becomes overwhelmed, he'd taken a responsibility for her livelihood after the transformation and he wasn't going to let her die.

Looping over, transforming and dropping into a swoop, Hiccup used his momentum to ram one sector of the rogues unconscious. He stayed invisible, quickly knocking down threats while Astrid did the same with the remaining ones. Their teamwork thinned their opponents quickly; even so, one did make the achievement of actually hitting Astrid's tail; a feat she punished two seconds later with a quick flick of her tail that sent him flying.

With one left, Hiccup and Astrid were both ready to finish it, but he ran away instead of attacking like they'd expected. Bracing herself, Astrid was about to go and catch him when a thick arm stopped all of the man's forward momentum.

Coming around the corner, the owner of the arm became apparent. Hiccup visibly drooped, shifting back into his human form.

"Hi dad."

Stoick had been walking through the village when one of his people went past him at all haste. With his reaction time, it was no problem for Stoick to grab him before he ran past.

Now that the scared person was in his grasp, it was an opportunity for Stoick to ask him what was going on.

"Steffor, What are you doing rushing around like that? Are there dragons attacking?" Stoick asked, wondering why they would be attacking during this time; normally there was a set time.

Steffor wasn't exactly sure how to answer the chief; after all, he'd just been plucked from his escape.

"Uh, it's something like that, Chief." Steffor whimpered.

Still, it was enough for Stoick to suspect something was wrong. Pulling his axe, he looked in the direction that the man had come from.

He saw Hiccup and Astrid, surrounded by bodies that were luckily still breathing. Stoick was visibly confused; obviously there had been a confrontation, but how? And why?

"Hiccup? Astrid? Would one of you mind telling me why you're surrounded by sleeping people of Berk?" Stoick said, suspicion evident in his voice.

Hiccup exhaled loudly and put a hand to his forehead, trying to figure out a way of explaining that wouldn't incite Stoick's wrath.

"Well, we don't know either, Dad; we were walking through the village and then they suddenly attacked us." Hiccup said calmly.

Stoick gave Steffor a share of suspicion; he knew Hiccup wasn't normally a liar. The questioning would have ended there, the villagers found guilty of the attack, if Stoick hadn't suspected that having a spirit of a dragon may make Hiccup capable of cunning.

This moment of indecision allowed Steffor a chance to redeem himself.

"Stoick, they attacked us like savages! Right in the village no less! They're a threat to the community." Steffor said, trying to keep a straight face even as Stoick made him want to confess and ask for forgiveness.

Stoick was now firmly in the middle of his indecision, only finding a solution when he noticed the peculiar way the bodies were positioned.

"It seems I have been lied to." Stoick said, inciting hope from Steffor, since he was the last person to say anything. "You say they attacked, but what I see here is a pile of people all going _for_ Astrid. And then you say they attacked savagely, yet I see no signs of injury here." Stoick finished, fully aware of the truth now.

Steffor gulped, his ruse had failed. He tried to struggle but, trapped in Stoick's grip as he was, he got nowhere.

"You have proved yourself to be a nuisance, Steffor. I expected more from you. I'll talk to you later." Stoick told him, before giving a casual knockout blow to his head.

Discarding the sleeping body, Stoick walked towards Hiccup.

Hiccup was happy to see they were in the clear, but then his mood shifted as he saw who had just materialised.

"Toothless, what are you doing?" Hiccup asked, even though his question was rhetorical since he could see where Toothless was putting his claws.

Stoick wasn't sure who Hiccup was talking to, but he gathered that the person was behind him. He turned around and came face to face with an angry Night Fury.

He still had his axe, so he swung it around. To his shock, Toothless barely flinched as he grabbed the axe then pulled it out of his hands to throw it away. Even Hiccup was surprised; he'd expected that Toothless would be too soft to do anything violent, but Hiccup knew that he wasn't capable of that speed and precision yet, neither was Astrid and she was a far more experienced warrior.

Even without the weapon, Stoick was ready to defend himself in front of this threat. He tried to grapple it to the ground, but Toothless stood up and grabbed his hands, before pushing him onto the floor, growling.

"Toothless, please leave him alone. I know he looks dangerous but-" Hiccup started.

" **But nothing, Hiccup. He's dangerous and I wouldn't forgive myself if you got hurt; you're my first and only friend, and I won't forget that, ever."** Toothless replied, his care seeming out of place for a legendary dragon who'd just subdued the best warrior in the village.

"Toothless, he's my father. Let me talk to him."

Grudgingly, Toothless relented and let him get to his feet. Even so, as Stoick got up to his feet and looked him in the eye, Toothless kept up his suspicious gaze.

Stoick fixed his gaze for a moment longer, before returning it to Hiccup; knowing that he could do little against the Night Fury.

"You're off the hook this time. But, if I ever hear that you've been causing trouble for the village, I will not hesitate to send you away, for the village's safety." Stoick said, getting a sharp headbutt from Toothless to remind him that he wasn't in the position to make threats.

For Hiccup, however, this warning was not necessary; he didn't want to be a problem, not now that he was finally not useless. Either way, he was still courteous.

"Of course, dad. This village is my responsibility almost as much as it is yours, I wouldn't want to betray that responsibility." Hiccup said professionally, like a chief himself.

Stoick straightened up with pride.

"Well said, son. Keep this up and you'll make a good chief; dragon pet, dragon transformation and all." Stoick said.

Toothless gave Stoick a hard look for the 'pet' comment, before turning to Hiccup with a smile.

" **I think you'd make a great chief."** Toothless said, making Hiccup blush slightly at the compliment. **"As long as I'm your advisor, that is."** Toothless finished in jest, making Hiccup crash down again, to Toothless' amusement.

Astrid listened quietly, pausing to give little sounds of surprise and encouragement, before laughing at Toothless' little trick. Stoick was left to try and grasp what was going on between them, before shaking it off and talking again.

"So, are you going anywhere now?" Stoick said, pleased to get everything serious out of the way.

"Yeah, I think we'd be better going on our way now." Hiccup replied awkwardly, unsure of whether all the tension from the earlier brawl had gone. Seeing no response forbidding it, Hiccup then stumbled away, joined quite quickly by Toothless, who escorted him closely.

Then Astrid took up position behind both of them and Stoick was left there, standing in the results of a failed ambush on Hiccup. He had to admit that his son had skills, as well as Astrid, but the thought it was from becoming bound to a dragon? He had talked about how it was such a great thing while in battle, but here he wasn't so sure. Dragons were cunning by nature, allowing Hiccup free reign to do what he wanted would probably lead to trouble.

Once they were out of range, Astrid began talking to Hiccup.

"He seems to trust us, a little. I hope that we won't have to be on his bad side; I don't know about you, but _I_ still want to be a famous warrior to make the Hoffersons proud." Astrid remarked.

"Of course! By all means. Let me screw up and you be cool and that." Hiccup said, not willing for a second to make Astrid annoyed.

Astrid was displeased by his cowardice.

"Are you _really_ going to pretend like that, Hiccup? More strength, a legendary dragon form, weird frills and all that? That's… kinda unlike you now." Astrid protested.

Toothless smiled widely at the mention of 'legendary'

Hiccup sighed, before giving a weak laugh.

"Yeah, I have all of that and I'm still a weak loser; funny how that happens." Hiccup said, without any tone of humour.

And now Astrid was even more ashamed. "Are you _kidding_ me right now Hiccup!? Don't say I'm going to have to deal with a crybaby shifter." Astrid fumed.

Toothless was ready to rip some limbs off, before acknowledging that she was right; Hiccup was too pessimistic.

" **She's right; you were shy when I met you and you're shy now. Where's the Hiccup I want? The one that's fit to carry my blessing?"** Toothless asked.

Hiccup was confused.

"That… you never mentioned anything like that. What do you mean 'fit to carry my blessing'? I'm fit to carry nothing?"

Toothless sighed in defeat.

" **It's a lie, I like you for being** _ **the**_ **Hiccup; the one I know for being the only one willing to be around me without wanting to stick a knife in my throat."** He then grinned. **"That's what friendships are made of."** Before reverting. **"But still, Hiccup, change your mind, you are so much more."**

Hiccup was willing to protest. Actually, he was willing to protest _a lot_. Actually, he was very… you get the idea. But, he stood down.

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry." Hiccup apologised. Then he took a deep breath and released it with determination.

Toothless could easily notice, putting his paw on Hiccup's shoulder.

" **Are you okay now, bud?"** He said, large eyes awaiting a response with his head cocked.

"Yeah, yeah I think I am now. Thanks." Hiccup responded, with a bit more confidence. He had a strange sensation that the very earth below him felt a bit firmer as he gained emotional balance.

Toothless was visibly happy at this, giving him a proud look while Astrid… well it didn't look so happy.

"Really? Just a few words and _now_ you're confident. You can do much better than that, Hiccup." Astrid said, expectation present in her tone and posture; she wasn't the type who allied themselves to people with such fragile emotion. Where was the fighting spirit that he showed when defending himself against the dragon trainee group? It seemed to have faded into the background of sad Hiccup.

Toothless was perturbed.

" **Astrid, he's fine, leave him alone. I'm happy with him now."** He said, cautious of Astrid's temperament.

His fears were valid; Astrid still looked annoyed.

"Shut up, the problem isn't fixed; he's just pretending for now." Astrid replied with confidence in her own perspective.

The first reason for Toothless' growing anger was her disrespectful order for him to shut up, the second was that she was being so classically stubborn.

" **You underestimate Hiccup, Astrid; he's got far more fighting spirit in him then you have, I've seen it."** Toothless declared, furiously.

"Well, if he has got that 'fighting spirit' let's see if he can still stand up to me." Astrid gloated, before unsheathing her axe and taking position on the other side of the street to Hiccup.

Meanwhile, the person in question hadn't got much of a say.

"I'm fine, I mean it. I was- Hey! Watch it!" Hiccup yelled, as Astrid brought down her axe and he rolled just in time.

Toothless was about to intervene quickly, but Astrid reminded him of his earlier statement.

"You stay out of this; let the _real_ warrior diagnose the so-called 'fighting spirit."

With this said, Toothless sat down on the path uneasily; watching Astrid like a hawk through angrily-slitted eyes.

Astrid picked up her axe from the earth with barely any effort, an effect of her increased 'Nadder' strength. While she was doing this, Hiccup made a shield quickly; to protect himself, but also to prevent getting Astrid more aggressive. However, it didn't work as Astrid buried the axe deep into the wooden shield, going so far that it drew blood from Hiccup's arm holding the shield.

In pain, Hiccup went even more defensive, replacing the wood in the shield with his previous Fury metal shield to protect against her assault. She gave a small scoff at this, distracting Hiccup a little, and then hit the shield hard again with force.

It was now, as the shield was almost pulled out of his grip, that Hiccup decided it was time to act. It was also the time Astrid chose to boast.

"So, it looks like you're wrong; all that strength and he has no idea what to do with it." Astrid mocked to Toothless. The dragon shifted in displeasure, but a new rush of activity from Hiccup gave him a mental smile.

" **No, you are. Aren't you always warned about never turning your back to an enemy."** Toothless said smugly.

Astrid was not impressed.

"Well, with a good warrior, yes it would be. But, he's been on the defensive all this time and- OW!" Astrid shouted, with Hiccup landing a shield bash into her back. She turned around, now in a fury. "Oh, you are in it now, Hiccup. Prepare to defend yourself." She warned, before rushing at him with a war cry.

This time though, Hiccup wasn't going to just take it on the shield. Twisting, he pulled Astrid's momentum-loaded axe aside with his shield and then materialised a sword in his other hand. Instead of slicing, he span it and rammed the pommel into Astrid's gut.

The blow stunned Astrid, but it was obvious to both of them it wasn't the best one he could've chosen. She was initially disappointed in his poor choice of strategy before she saw that he'd replaced his sword and shield with a bow and arrow.

"You stay right there. I don't want to hurt you, but if you keep this up…" Hiccup let the threat hang in the air. He didn't want this fight to go on, he wanted her to drop this act.

Astrid was momentarily hesitant, but again her warrior determination came back and she challenged Hiccup, moving quickly. However, a blunted arrow hitting precisely into her leg told her that Hiccup had managed to track her. She wanted to keep on going, but she knew it would probably just end with more arrows. Plus, the arrow to the leg had stunned that leg for a while.

She stopped what she was doing and turned her attention to Hiccup as he kept an arrow nocked, ready for any sudden movements.

"I thought you were actually going to prove yourself a warrior, and now you just fire arrows like a coward? Drop that bow and engage me like a Viking." Astrid said, readying her axe as she was sure that Hiccup would obey her commands.

However, he kept his bow up.

"No, Astrid. You asked me to fight, and I'm fighting. Put it down to draconic cunning if you want, but this is how I'm willing to defend myself." Hiccup explained, hoping that Astrid would see his reason and wouldn't try to rush him on the path again.

Her actions didn't really change to non-threatening; she actually began brandishing her axe with even more resolve. She saw how confident he was with his victory, and that made her more determined.

Then she rushed him again with a war cry, pushing off her good foot and carrying her momentum gingerly with her stunned leg towards Hiccup.

Hiccup, of course, released another arrow. This time, though, Astrid was ready, hobbling her stride slightly to push off to one side with her good leg, before getting back on track. Her speed meant she had already reached melee range by the time Hiccup reloaded.

She brought her axe around now, and Hiccup parried it with his bow, although a crunch emanated from it, signalling that the strike had broken the bow beyond good use. Still, it was his current defence, so he had to rely on it to protect himself.

Thinking quickly, Hiccup took advantage of his loaded bow by pushing off Astrid and then giving her a weak, blunt arrow to the stomach. She doubled over, and he expected he might have won.

Coming over to give assistance, he was instead met with a thrust of her axe as her position was revealed to be a ploy while she got her breath back. Toothless growled at this show of dishonourable behaviour, but kept back.

He sighed, dodging backwards. "Are you seriously trying trickery now, Astrid? I thought that was below you." He muttered.

Astrid looked back, a look like wildfire in her eyes. "You really think the best warrior maiden in this village would let you just walk all over her? You've seen nothing yet." She declared, lunging forward to emphasize her point.

Hiccup merely repeated his earlier dodge, keeping her at range as he chucked his broken bow aside and replaced it with a sword and shield.

Astrid was mildly impressed. "I see you've finally decided to fight the proper way." She commented quickly, before continuing to push the attack. Her strikes, limited in scope by only using an axe, nevertheless caused Hiccup to get knocked back ever so slightly; too furious of an assault to respond with a counter just yet.

He raised up his shield with his right arm and braced the shield further with his left sword arm as her strikes kept coming; mostly ricocheting off his fury metal shield, but still transferring a lot of force that caused him to be pushed back slowly.

However, Hiccup's regained passive streak would end soon; he wasn't going to just let Astrid pummel him into submission again. This time, he knocked off Astrid's axe on purpose and capitalised on her surprise to thrust forward his shield into her. With a quick reaction, Astrid dodged back to avoid the blow and regained control of her swinging axe to bring it back around.

Again, though, Hiccup wasn't going to be pushed back; he was on the offensive now, as he deserved to be. He caught the axe blade with his sword, before continuing his main movement towards Astrid.

The momentum of the axe was instantly removed, but Astrid just swung it back around towards his right, where he couldn't defend himself with his sword. He turned his shield and caught it, turning to see Astrid's smug look.

"I guess you have _something_ in you, just don't know if that's the warrior spirit or the cornered dragon spirit." She stated, getting a slight growl from Toothless at the 'cornered dragon' imagery. "Oh shut up dragon, kinda busy working out if your rider is a Viking or a runt." She said, causing Toothless to tense himself, before reluctantly refraining in heightened, for respect of their duel.

At this stage of their confrontation, many villagers came by to watch, wondering how Hiccup was holding his own against Astrid.

Hiccup was angered from Astrid's casual decision on what he could be; had he not proven himself!? This time he became truly serious.

Swinging his sword, blunt end first, into Astrid's side, he got an expected parry from Astrid, freeing up his shield which he used in yet another shield push. This time, though, Astrid was already preoccupied, so his shield easily pushed her off her feet and onto the village path.

She quickly got back to her feet, seemingly unconcerned by her recent fall.

"Interesting strategy, slightly impressive, although don't think that you've got an advantage simply because you've got two weapons." She announced, before shortening her axe reach, aiming to knock them away rather than hit him. She went for his left at first, to hit his sword first.

Hiccup was momentarily knocked out of his defensive position, but he steeled himself and brought both his weapons back to his front. Astrid was acting as though he would be overwhelmed by that new strategy, but her confidence was diminished when he stepped forward and caught the strike, reinforced by his own body being directly behind his shield.

With her weapon dead of momentum, Hiccup finally had a chance to disarm her. Without a moment's notice he put his sword blade onto the neck of the axe, put a leg on her chest and, using both at the same time to push apart, he separated Astrid from her blade, to the shock of the villagers surrounding them.

For the benefit of the villagers he just noticed, he made sure to pull it to the ground, rather than let it fly off into the crowd.

The axe clattered noisily, and Hiccup relaxed, putting away his sword into thin air and putting the shield onto his back.

Battle over, Astrid hesitantly stood down.

"So, what do you think? Runt or Viking?" Hiccup asked, expectant; crossing his arms as though it would affect her choice..

Astrid mulled it over; typical of her since she wouldn't award the best titles that easily. Eventually she made up her mind.

"I've decided you might just be a Viking." She said, curtly, before walking, then running, out of the village without another word.

Hiccup and Toothless were left alone, in the gaze of the villagers that had watched the fight go down; including Stoick, who'd ran over when he heard the sounds of metal on metal.

Hiccup, with the rush of battle calming down, was feeling especially sheepish; especially when he saw his dad.

"Oh, hi Stoick. Uh… I'll… I'll be going, see you later!" He called back, before sprinting off, stumbling slightly.

Stoick watched him go, followed closely by Toothless with his running/flying gait. He stopped for a short time just go give Stoick a short look; a look of… acceptance, before turning back around and following after Hiccup with all speed.

Once Toothless was alongside him, Hiccup had to ask him a question that had been bugging him.

"So… Toothless; do you think that was making friends? I mean she likes fighting, so I thought-"

He was interrupted by a loud snort from Toothless as they kept running fast towards the forest.

" _ **That**_ **was your way of making friends? Humans are crazy"** Toothless said, petering off into a mumble.

Hiccup was beside himself.

"But, that's the _only_ way I can get through to her! She isn't exactly the 'talk nice to me and I'll like you' kind of girl! She's a _warrior!_ Snotlout was proof enough of that.

" **Who's Snotlout?"**

"He's a cousin of mine; he tries to get together with Astrid and fails _constantly_ , probably one of the reasons why she doesn't exactly like the sweet talk.

Toothless thought on it, though most of his attention was on his running, especially when they crossed into the dense forest.

" **I guess you shouldn't be like him then, I'm glad you're making an effort, even if it is a strange way to do it."** Toothless replied, with an obvious tone of slight disbelief.

Hiccup nodded in agreement, though Toothless couldn't see most of it behind one of the boulders they passed.

They faded into silence for most of the rest of the trip, until near the end where he was about to enquire about what Toothless would have done that situation.

"So, Toothless-" He started, but then he was disctracted by Toothless unfurling his wings.

"Why are you-" He went again, before Toothless jumped off the cliff edge they had just reached. Hiccup, who hadn't realised how close they were to the shelter, plunged off the end; to be rescued by Toothless who swooped underneath him.

He was about to thank Toothless, before he heard his sniggering at the stupid thing he'd just done.

"Oh come on, Toothless; I was just trying to talk! Can't you understand why I would be distracted?" Hiccup protested, which only reinforced Toothless' mirth.

" **Oh come on, that's funny; you completely forgot where you were going!"**

Hiccup sighed as Toothless touched down on the other side, next to their shelter.

"For someone who claims to be my best friend, you sure like to delight in my accidents."

Toothless, as usual, didn't let that dampen his mood.

" **It's fun, plus isn't that what good friends do?"** Toothless said in a jovial mood, although some concern did make itself apparent for Hiccup.

Hiccup relinquished his fight, instead preferring to laugh alongside him; heightening their joy through mutuality.

Their laughs did, however,, end short as they caught sight of Astrid standing expectantly with her axe slung across her shoulder; luckily she seemed to have a positive mood, so they were allowed to disengage without being reprimanded.

She snorted, before rolling her axe so she wasn't in her waiting pose.

"You two seem to be having fun." She commented.

They both nodded, then Hiccup began to walk off, while Toothless seemed to be thinking on something.

" **So, Astrid, what do you think of Hiccup's fighting?"** Toothless then said, causing Hiccup to stop momentarily, before turning around to listen to what she had to say.

Astrid didn't even seem to notice Hiccup's actions.

"Well, obviously he isn't the best, yet." Astrid said, purposefully underestimating to Hiccup's disappointment. "But, seriously, I do have to admire his technique; he seems to have improved a lot since the ring; I would say he has some kind of fighting spirit within him, probably one of a dragon." Astrid then went on, being a little more sympathetic to Hiccup's cause. Then she shrugged, as if emphasizing that this was her entire summary, before walking back to the shelter, past Hiccup, as the sun set.

Toothless turned towards Hiccup with a warm smile, waiting for Astrid to get out of earshot before he conveyed his joy.

" **She seems to be impressed with you, well done."** He responded. Hiccup thanked him for the reassurance, before continuing to walk to the shelter, ready for sleep.

However, he was overtaken by Toothless; who turned his head back to him and gave him a lick.

"Toothless! What was that for!?" Hiccup shouted, surprised.

" **Celebration lick."** Toothless responded shortly. **"And if you can continue what you're doing, there's more where that came from."** He added.

Hiccup sighed and shook his head, although his dispassion was weak; he was glad they were both having fun.

 **End of chapter.**

 **Well, looks like the word count went over 3000, actually it went over 3500, 4000 and 4500, I hope you didn't mind reading extra story on top of your story.**

 **You may have seen the notice on my profile saying that I have writer's block; that is still painfully true, no matter what the posting of this chapter may suggest.**


	18. 18: Talking

**Chapter 18.**

 **A/N**

 **I'm furious. I've got things to do, a mind uncooperative, and I'm angry about it. Screw laziness.**

 **End A/N**

"So, do you suggest that I continue fighting her? It's an odd way of romance, I have to say." Hiccup commented to Toothless drily.

Toothless shrugged, face neutral **. "If that's what you have to do; after all, you are engaged together because of combat."** Toothless commented, referring to that _one_ time.

Hiccup put his head down in shame; "I was too angry back then, it was a stupid decision. Now the village thinks I'm a freak, my dad is just plain confused, and Astrid is slightly suspicious of everything I do, even though I've told her it doesn't matter."Hiccup complained.

Toothless shrugged, somewhat accepting his complaint but, at the same time, he _was_ here to build relationships between Hiccup and the rest of the village soooo…. **"How can you be so sure that it really doesn't matter; you do seem to be attracted to her in some way, even if you don't care to admit it."** Toothless accused, gaining a smug grin as Hiccup's eyes widened in shock.

"Why would you say that? I thought you were my friend, not romantic adviser!" Hiccup said, at first just surprised and then allowing a little bit of humour into his tone; he was sure Toothless wasn't trying to be that mean.

" **And who says I can't be both?"** Toothless replied, his smug grin getting even bigger.

"Insufferable reptile." Hiccup said, facepalming and shaking his head in playful disbelief.

" **You like me though."**

"That is true." Hiccup replied, taking his hand away from his face to nod. "But sometimes you just mess with me." He continues.

" **Like good friends do."** Toothless said back, laughing.

Hiccup sighed and just turned around. "I'll go off to the village's Blacksmiths for a while; should get my mind off things." Hiccup commented.

Toothless was a bit miffed. **"Why do you have to relax in the village? You have me here."** He said, annoyed at the prospect that Hiccup would leave him so casually.

Hiccup was a bit wary of his irritation. "Calm down; I do care about you deeply, but I was a human beforehand, so I do human things to calm down, like metalworking." Hiccup explains.

" **Fine, but I'm going to follow you, so you don't have a repeat of that ambush."** Toothless says.

Hiccup nods, knowing that Toothless can do that with his cloak and it was likely going to be the only way Toothless would agree with him. With that settled, he goes into the village, soon losing sight of Toothless as he disappears to follow him inside.

He is greeted with suspicious eyes, as usual, but he is careful to stay moving long enough that they don't have much time to do anything. Eventually he gets to Gobber who, being Hiccup's mentor, is a bit more lenient.

"Well hello there, nice to see yeh in the forge. Althoooough…. I didn't expect you to come back here; after all, ye've got a magical ability that lets you make anything you like, don't ye remember?" He laughs. Hiccup does so too, but remorsefully; knowing, with some guilt, that he left his old teacher behind.

"Still, why are ye here?" Gobber then asks.

Hiccup nods, understanding that his old mentor would be curious about his reasoning. "Well, I've been a little bit busy, of late, and I wanted to go somewhere to get my mind off things. That place is here; I've always enjoyed working metal and the tranquillity that comes with doing a job well." Hiccup said, to Gobber's appreciation.

"It looks like my apprentice isn't all dragon-minded after all! I'm glad ye came back here, Hiccup." Gobber congratulates. "Just try not to burn anything to the ground this time, eh?" Gobber then jokes, causing Hiccup to blush as he remembered all the times he accidentally did just that… and how easy it would be now.

"I'll be careful, Gobber." Hiccup promises.

Gobber gives him a pat on the back "Good to hear, now how about ye get to it?"

Hiccup nods again and then somewhat giddily goes into the main metalworking part of the forge, eager to begin. He lifts a blade up and marvels at its previous construction which, by virtue of Hiccup's experience with the weapons, he knew to be over 200 years old. Such a sword was a little bit damaged… well it was very damaged, but that's what you got when a Viking swung something.

Stoick met Gobber at the door, where he remained on rest as he had for a few days now. Stoick had been doing his normal chiefly duties, which had been much less intensive since the dragon attacks had stopped, and then he'd decided to drop by to talk to his childhood friend. "Gobber, old friend, are you still lazing around here? No more orders to fill?" Stoick said, with an edge of humour.

"Ay, Stoick; no one's needed any metal repairs or weapons since the dragons stopped. I only needed to finish a few last orders and then I was free. It feels weird, not to worry every night, but I've certainly enjoyed being able to sleep for once!" Gobber said, equally happy.

Stoick smiled to him, glad that everyone was fine at the moment, and was about to leave when Gobber mentioned something else. "Also, Hiccup's decided to do some forging inside. Seems like he didn't forget and, by the look on his face, I'd say he enjoys this work." Gobber said. Stoick was quite surprised that Hiccup had actually come into his old workplace, but resolved it with a wider grin, feeling he'd just been given the opportunity he needed to talk to Hiccup a bit more. Still, he would talk to Gobber a bit more about Hiccup's achievements until then.

Since staring wasn't going to do anything to help, Hiccup flared up the forge fire for some immediate use. During that time, Toothless appeared from his previous cloak. **"Why do you fix weapons? You do know that they are used to kill the likes of us, right?"** Toothless asks, concerned.

"If I do my duty for this island and dragon kind right, it won't have to be. If you went around the village you'd see that a lot of us like to frame weapons; that's most likely what's going to happen to this one if there is no war for it to be used in." Hiccup said, placing the blade into the hot coals for it to begin heating to its working temperature.

" **You're that confident that you'll succeed?"** Toothless asks initially, before expanding; **"It's good that you're optimistic, but if it doesn't happen, then that weapon** _ **will**_ **be used to hurt dragons, and it will most likely kill them, considering how hard you Vikings swing weapons."** Toothless said, still incredibly concerned; wincing at the sight of the blade and with a shifting of his feet that portrayed his distaste.

Hiccup sighs. "I know…. There is a part of me that is concerned that I won't succeed, and that I've built the very weapon we use to kill you." He says, "I… I guess that I was just following my old routine." Hiccup says guiltily, not finding any way to excuse himself in front of Toothless; after all, it was kind of like fixing a bounty hunter's weapon right in front of a possible target of said bounty hunter; not very comfortable.

He lies the weapon aside and souses the flames. "I shouldn't endorse violence, I'm here to make peace, not war." Hiccup said, slightly conflicted between his old pastime and his friend. "I think perhaps I'll consider some ideas to help people in their normal life in my room." Hiccup continues, as a compromise, before walking to his little, hidden-away drawing room to do just that. Toothless watches him go, glad that Hiccup had decided on such a rational and helpful mindset.

Still, being alone in a room full of weapons was not the best place to leave an intelligent dragon hateful of such weapons. Within moments he'd melted them all down into sludge with his plasma streams quite casually. After that was done, he went in behind Hiccup, to see that he was designing some kind of half pipe idea.

Seeing that Toothless had come in, Hiccup moves it to the side so his dragon friend could see it better. "I'm thinking of using these to transport water from the mountains down to every house. The only problem is…" Hiccup said, annoyed by this slight detail. "…The cranes are too large and slow to build this quickly; they would most likely take several years to build this from the mountains to every house in the village." Hiccup comments, missing out a certain fact.

" **You do realise that dragons can move and carry things up into the air much better than these 'cranes' of yours."** Toothless commented calmly and Hiccup was dumbstruck, forgetting about the obvious fact that dragons could fly. "You're right. Say, we've needed cranes for a long time, imagine if we'd just gotten along? Then we could've built something together." Hiccup stated, with awe at the idea.

Toothless nodded. **"Now I think about it, I'd agree; we're better together than apart, but it seems the threat of the Queen's army makes it next to impossible for us to get on; she is a ruthless tyrant."** Toothless says, spitting out the part about the queen with hatred.

Hiccup looks at him for a few moments, wrapping his mind around the truth that he'd said, which took a while. However, wouldn't he have to go to war against her for peace? Surely so, but at the same time bloodshed was hateful now for him, because of Toothless, so what then? He couldn't leave her alone, as the tyrant Toothless had described, and he couldn't go to overt war against her because that would lead to violence, and then most likely death.

Thus, he was left at a dilemma, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he pondered the morality of it.

Toothless saw his attitude and attempted to make the decision easier for him. **"Hiccup, I know you're wondering about how to deal with her; because I've been doing the same ever since I had a mind free to do so. Also, I know you've just rejected violence, but listen: I won't normally advise for murder against dragons, but now I also feel that it's wrong to kill humans, because of you. She, though, is a beast, I doubt you'll be able to reason with her and there is nowhere you can lock her up where she can't escape. Because of that, I encourage you to kill her; for the sake of all the dragons under her regime and, yes, the humans on this island."** Toothless said, with finality.

Hiccup was a bit surprised that Toothless was telling him to kill, but at the same time his reasoning was valid. He was about to add some thoughts of his own to that argument, but then he heard a war cry come from behind him.

"DEVIL!" Stoick said, immediately going from relaxed to warlike as soon as he saw the Night Fury in the room. He brought up his axe as Toothless whipped around and looked into his eyes. Initially shocked, Toothless' eyes narrowed in confrontational style and he lunged towards Stoick; going towards his axe. He manages to dislodge the weapon, tossing it aside and then trying to pin Stoick under his large weight, not taking into account Stoick's strength; which was easily enough to throw off the offending Night Fury.

Toothless flipped around in midair from the chuck, landing on his feet and ready to engage him once again. Stoick got to his feet but then he froze as he saw Toothless was charging a plasma blast and pointing it directly at his chest.

Knowing that such a shot could break apart catapults, Stoick rushed towards Toothless, picking up his spear; intent on killing him before he could release the blast. Toothless in turn saw his incoming strike and released his own shot; the projectile sparking off Toothless's mouth on its way to the target. Stoick swung his axe in an overhead, suicidal pattern; making sure that even if the beast killed him it would be slain.

Then a smooth, fury metal shield appeared between them; breaking Toothless's shot before moving up to deflect Stoick's axe.

Both contenders looked at the owner of the shield with differing expressions, but Hiccup wasn't interested in how they felt at this point in time. "Dad, Toothless, stop it and sit down." Hiccup said, wary for if the fight heated back up again. Toothless obediently sat, with a curious expression, while Stoick rested somewhat, but he didn't want to sit down with a Night Fury in the house.

"Dad, please sit down, it's for both of your benefits." Hiccup said, with a strong yet quiet determination to make him do so.

Looking at him with suspicious eyes, Stoick sat down on Hiccup's chair, and then glared at Toothless while Toothless glared right back.

"Tell me why I shouldn't be tearing this devil's head off its shoulders." Stoick said, without any subtlety. Hiccup sighed, since this attitude was to be as stubborn as his namesake.

"Well, mainly because he isn't currently trying to tear your head off your shoulders." Hiccup replied back.

"Did you see it fire at me?! That seems close enough to 'tear your head off your shoulders'" Stoick replied, irritated.

"You went at him with an axe. Anyways, that's not important. I just want to make sure you two aren't at each other's throats."

"It kills us, Hiccup; that dragon is a killing machine and you say that you don't want me to kill him first?" Stoick said with disbelief, still showing no signs of repenting on his kill-dragon rules.

" **Only when I was under her influence."** Toothless replies to that statement, but Stoick can't hear him.

"Dad, I know that you hate dragons, but he's with me, as well as a few other dragons; they won't hurt you as long as you don't hurt them." Hiccup said, trying to get some sense into him.

"Right, as though those _things_ can actually reason; you may have gotten that one sitting like a trained sheep, but it has no morals." Stoick replied.

Toothless, extremely offended by his slander of him, hissed loudly in his direction. Stoick looked at him with an unhappy scowl in distaste for the scaled monstrosity.

Hiccup sighed again, these two were bickering like idiots now. "You two need to get along at some point. But I can't do that now, so I'll see you later Stoick." Hiccup said, going off towards the entrance while Toothless followed; giving a flash of his teeth towards Stoick before his frills rotated back up to speed and he vanished into thin air right in front of Stoick.

"Disappearing devil." Stoick commented, slightly fearful from his realisation. Then he got a light, but basically only playful slap from Toothless. It surprised him, of course, but he couldn't help but think that it could have ended his life right there.

"Perhaps it's not quite as bloodthirsty as I originally thought." Stoick commented to what he thought was now an empty room, but Toothless gave him an invisible kiss for his positive line of thinking, causing Stoick to instinctively recoil at the feeling of saliva suddenly on his face. He heard a laugh from the air in front of him and, irritated, wiped the offensive saliva from his skin.

Hiccup, having no idea about what happened, just decided to leave as casually as he could, only to bump into a large crowd of curious villagers. In response he could only smile awkwardly and shift away; luckily for him they weren't that interested at the moment in stopping him, knowing how badly it went last time someone tried to do that; in fact he could pick out their discomfort with him which, rather than making him proud, just made him sigh, out of earshot, from making himself even more of an outcast by his actions.

Also, the only way for him to be properly accepted, it seemed, was to have Stoick continue being on his side which, judging by their most recent encounter, may be easier said than done.

To add to this uneasiness, he knew that he had the source of a lot of the villager's frustrations behind him somewhere, hidden in invisibility for now, and it only hastened his departure; turning on his nozzles once he was safely out of sight.

With deft movements and an extraordinary speed while crossing the terrain, Hiccup was able to quickly get back to the shelter he had constructed. Plus, there was a feeling of elation which helped to numb his previous guilt, which Hiccup was glad for. What he wasn't expecting for was, in the very moment he was slowing down, still in his happy state, was for Astrid to just catch him out of the air.

Not only was the stop so sudden, but also unexpected; Hiccup didn't even think of himself as a weakling anymore, since his changes, but this put him back in his place.

After recovering from the unwelcome stop, Hiccup looked at Astrid with a disappointed look. "What was that for?" He asked, looking comical just strung up like a piece of cloth on a clothesline on Astrid's hand, increased strength or no.

"Well, I thought it might be nicer if you stopped here and talked, rather than running around like a mad thing." Astrid commented casually, which made Hiccup sigh; somehow he'd forgotten that people didn't talk at breakneck speeds.

"Alright, alright fine. But why do you want to talk?" Hiccup asked, getting settled into this little talk.

"Why were you in the village?" Astrid asked right back, straight to the point.

After a little while, Hiccup answered. "I thought I might go back to the village to do some metalworking, to get-"

"You don't need any weapons, Hiccup, in fact none of the villagers want weapons at the moment, from what I can recall and the fact that the village hasn't been attacked these past few days." Astrid stated.

Hiccup sighed haughtily; "You didn't let me finish, I went in to take my mind off things." Hiccup argued.

"Well that's good to know; that you're still somewhat human and not a dragon hermit." Astrid teased, leaning casually on her axe handle as the blade muddied itself in the somewhat soft ground.

"Dragon hermit?!" Hiccup said, angry until the humour settled in.

"Absolutely."

"Well if I'm that, then you are too."

"I guess so." Astrid replied, unbothered.

It was at this point, in their little conversation, that Toothless and Stormfly became visible/ joined them respectively. The new arrivals were enough to pause the talking, but not stop it.

"Hello Toothless, hello Stormfly." Hiccup greeted politely.

"I'd say the same." Astrid agreed, glad to see them too.

 **End of chapter.**

 **I am glad to have finished it. Still, I've been extremely out of practice these past few months, so I don't think this is my best work, but I will try to get better.**

 **I also thank all of you who came back with feedback on the story and I'd love to see any more suggestions you would like to offer.**


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